At- I 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


Hundred 
Tears  of  Missions 

THE  STORY   OF  PROGRESS 
SINCE   CAREY'S  BEGINNING 


BY 

REV.  DELAVAN  L.  LEONARD,  D.D. 

Associate  Editor  of  the  "Missionary  Review  of  the  World" 


Introduction  by  REV.  ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D. 


REVISED    EDITION 


FUNK    &    WAGNALLS    COMPANY 

NBW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
1905 


Copyright,  1895,  and  I9°3»  ty 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY. 

[Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America.] 
Revised  Edition,  Published,  September,  1903. 


1 

CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGF. 

PREFACE  TO  THE  REVISED  EDITION    ...  v 

PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION  ....  i 

INTRODUCTION 3 

I.  THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  OF  MISSIONS    ...  5 

II.  MISSIONS  IN  THE  EARLY  CENTURIES  ...  12 

III.  CONVERSION  OF  NORTHERN  AND  WESTERN 

EUROPE 19 

IV.  THE  NON-MISSIONARY  CENTURIES      ...     27 
V.  REFORMATION  AND  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA    32 

VI.  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS 36 

VII.  PREPARATION  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS     .     .     40 
VIII.  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS  BEFORE  CAREY   .     .     53 

IX.  THE  CAREY  EPOCH 69 

X.  THE  GREAT  MISSIONARY  REVIVAL     .     .     .     81 
XI.  GENESIS  OF  MISSIONS  IN  AMERICA     ...     97 
XII.  THE  PHENOMENON  OF  MISSIONARY  EXPAN- 
SION    126 

XIII.  MISSIONS  IN  INDIA 142 

XIV.  MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA  ;  MADAGASCAR  .     .     .187^ 
XV.  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA 247 

XVI.  TURKISH  EMPIRE  ;  PERSIA 281 

XVII.  CHINESE  EMPIRE  ;  KOREA 307 


1490723 


IV  CONTENTS. 

XVIII.  MISSIONS  IN  JAPAN 339 

XIX.  MISSIONS  IN  SPANISH  AMERICA     ....  365 
XX.  MISSIONS  AMONG  THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS   .  389 
XXI.  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  AGO,  AND  Now      .     .  403 
XXII.  THE  LAND  WHICH  REMAINS  TO  BE  POS- 
SESSED      420 

INDEX 437 


Preface  to  the  Revised  Edition. 


IF  any  curious  reader  should  inquire  why  a  revised 
edition  of  this  book  is  undertaken,  the  paragraphs  which 
follow  will  abundantly  supply  the  answer. 

1 .  Because  such  warm  commendation  had  come  from 
so  many  sources,  including  scores  of  reviewers  both  in  this 
country  and  across  the  Atlantic,  and  because  the  Chris- 
tian public  had  manifested  its  appreciation  through  a 
large  and  continued  sale,  the  desire  was  kindled,  and 
later  the  purpose  was  formed,  to  make  the  volume  still 
more  worthy  of  use  by  the  class  for  which  it  was  origi- 
nally designed;   to  wit,  "the  youth  of  the  land,  espe- 
cially such  of  these  as  are  connected  with  the  Student 
Volunteer,  the  Christian  Endeavor,  the  Epworth  League, 
and  all  kindred  organizations." 

2.  Again,  specialists  upon  the  literature  of  missions, 
particularly  in  the  statistical  field,  have  recently  multi- 
plied to  a  remarkable  extent,  so  that  the  historian  has 
now  at  his  elbow  helps,  each  in  its  way  approaching  to 
the  ideal,  which  hitherto  were  not  at  all  to  be  had. 
For  example,  ten  years  ago  Dean  Vahl  was  in  the  midst 
of  his  (then)  unique  task,  the  production  annually  of 
"Missions  to  the  Heathen,  a  Statistical  Review,"  a  pro- 
duction filled  with  facts  and  figures  unapproached  both 
for    accuracy  and    abundance.     Since   that   time  have 
appeared  in  America  Dennis's  epoch-making  "Centen- 
nial Survey  of  Foreign  Missions,"  and,  quite  different 


VI  PREFACE   TO  THE   REVISED   EDITION. 

but  as  perfect  in  its  way,  Beach's  "Geography  and  Atlas 
of  Protestant  Missions";  also  in  Germany,  Warneck's 
invaluable  "History  of  Protestant  Missions,"  and  Grun- 
demann's  "Brief  Geography  and  Statistics  of  Protestant 
Missions."  Therefore  it  seemed  to  be  more  than  fitting 
to  incorporate  at  least  a  fraction  of  what  may  be  gleaned 
from  such  prolific  sources. 

3.  Since    the    bulk    of   the   work   was    done    upon 
"A  Hundred  Years  of  Missions,"  nearly  a  decade  has 
passed    filled    to    overflowing   with    events    of  greatest 
significance  to   the   Kingdom   of  God,    in   lands  both 
Christian  and  pagan.     Marked  development  has  come 
in   the   missionary  world   through   the   organization  of 
scores  of  new  societies  largely  of  the  stamp  of  the  Chris- 
tian and  Missionary  Alliance  and  the  Regions  Beyond 
Union ;  through  movements  for  the  furtherance  of  med- 
ical and  industrial  missions ;  and  through  the  inaugura- 
tion  of  new  phases   of  evangelizing   activity,   like  the 
Forward   Movement,    the  Student   Federation,  Student 
Volunteers,    Tenth    Legion,    etc.     Moreover,    so    rapid 
beyond  precedent  has  been  the  progress  in  the  foreign 
field  that  figures  which  ten  years  ago  were  in  accord 
with  the  facts,  are  now  grievously  out  of  date  and  so  are 
seriously   misleading.     Therefore   a   rigid   revision   was 
demanded. 

4.  But  outside  of  the  religious  realm  changes  had 
also  taken  place  which  were  if  possible  even  more  as- 
tonishing,   and   in   the   aggregate  more   momentous   in 
bearing  direct  and  indirect  upon  the  world's  redemption. 
These  are  specimen  events:   The  Boxer  Outbreak;  the 
admission  of  Japan  to  equality  with  Christian  nations; 
the  outcome  of  the  Boer  war ;  the  advent  of  the  United 
States  into  the  Antilles  and  the  Philippines;  and  the 


PREFACE   TO   THE   REVISED   EDITION.  Vll 

construction  of  promoters  of  civilization  like  the  Trans- 
Siberian  Railway,  the  Kongo  Railway,  the  Uganda  Rail- 
way, and  the  stupendous  Cape-to-Cairo  undertaking.  By 
such  strange  auxiliaries  are  the  conquests  of  the  Cross 
hastened  forward. 

5.  Perhaps  more  important  than  all  other  reasons  for 
a  new  edition  of  this  book,  is  the  fact  that  since  the  first 
came  from  the  press  one  century  has  ended  and  another 
has  opened,  thus  affording  a  fitting  opportunity  to  com- 
pare and  contrast  the  present  with  the  past,  to  review 
the  process  and  sum  up  the  results.     Therefore  an  entire 
new  chapter  has  been  added  entitled  "A  Hundred  Years 
Ago  and   Now,"  which  pictures  the  peoples  and  the 
churches  as  they  were  in  1800,  and  also,  in  order  to 
indicate  the  rapidly  accelerating  rate  of  movement  on- 
ward and  upward,  shows  them  as  they  were  a  half-cen- 
tury since,  and  again,  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  decade. 
The  author's  prayer  and  hope  are  that  preparation  may 
thus  be  made  for  a  profitable  rereading  of  the  final  chap- 
ter on  "  The  Land  which  Remains  to  be  Possessed." 

6.  Tho  by  comparison  the  merest  trifle,  and  yet  not 
unworthy  to  operate  as  a  reason  for  a  new  edition,  it 
became  more  and  more  noticeable  that  the  spelling  of 
proper  names,  especially  of  places  in  Africa,  India,  and 
China,  tho  correct  when  judged  by  the  standards  current 
ten  years  ago,  was  getting  out  of  date.     On  this  point  a 
thorough  revision  has  been  made,  which  aims  to  hold  a 
golden  mean  between  the  radical  and  the  conservative 
practise. 

D.  L.  L.,  Oberlin,  Ohio. 


Preface  to  the  First  Edition. 


THIS  volume  is  the  outcome  of  a  need  experimentally 
ascertained,  and  of  an  evidently  increasing  demand. 
That  is,  having  urgent  occasion  to  investigate  matters  re- 
nting to  the  beginning  and  development  of  modern  mis- 
sions, it  was  found  impossible  to  gather  the  facts  required 
without  a  long  and  laborious  search,  and  so  little  by  lit- 
tle the  determination  arose  to  fashion  what  could  not  be 
found.  The  works  of  Brown  and  Choules  belong  to  the 
infancy  of  efforts  for  the  world's  evangelization,  and 
handbooks  like  Christlieb's,  Warneck's  and  George 
Smith's,  though  of  great  value,  are  yet  unsatisfactory  at 
various  points.  And  then,  besides,  the  remarkable 
growth  in  recent  years  of  interest  in  missions  has  in- 
creased tenfold  the  number  of  such  as  are  in  eager  quest 
of  information  concerning  the  spread  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God  among  the  nations.  This  notable  phenomenon 
led  finally  to  the  conviction  that  a  book  like  this,  com- 
prehensive but  of  moderate  size,  might  prove  of  valuable 
service  to  not  a  few. 

All  along  the  design  has  been  to  tell,  not  a  little  about 
everything,  but  rather  enough  about  certain  important 
and  characteristic  things  pertaining  to  missionary  his- 
tory, fields,  etc.,  to  make  the  narrative  interesting,  and 
supply  also  as  much  as  the  average  reader  would  desire. 
This  limitation  will  explain  why  some  of  the  newer  work, 
or  regions  where  large  results  have  not  as  yet  been 
achieved,  are  left  without  mention. 

x 


2  PREFACE. 

How  vast  the  area  to  be  covered !  The  entire  heathen 
world,  with  a  multitude  of  nations,  and  religions  by  the 
score.  Hundreds  of  societies  engaged,  and  toilers  by  the 
ten  thousand.  And  the  instrumentalities  employed  are 
numerous  and  exceedingly  varied.  In  endeavoring  to 
compass  a  task  so  well-nigh  limitless  it  is  enough  to  hope 
for  moderate  measures  of  success. 

From  first  to  last  the  Christian  youth  of  the  land  have 
been  kept  in  mind,  especially  such  of  these  as  are  con- 
nected with  the  Student  Volunteers,  Christian  Endeavor, 
Epworth  Leagues,  and  kindred  organizations.  The  de- 
sire is  fervent  that  many  a  one  whose  ears  have  been 
opened  to  hear  with  solicitude  the  Macedonian  cry  will 
find  in  the  following  chapters  somewhat  to  quicken  to 
prayer  unceasing,  to  giving  systematic  and  liberal,  and 
to  lifelong  toil  for  the  diffusion  of  the  blessed  Glad  Tid- 
ings to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

OBERLIN,  OHIO,  May  2oth,  1895. 


INTRODUCTION 


IT  is  sometimes  a  question  how  far  an  introduction 
helps  the  book  it  introduces.  If  the  author  is  well  known 
he  needs  no  such  formal  entrance  into  the  literary  world ; 
if  he  is  as  yet  unfamiliar  to  a  wide  circle  of  readers,  his 
book  itself  is  his  best  recommendation. 

Dickens  used  to  say  that  it  was  an  easy  thing  to 
"  come  out  into  society,  but  a  difficult  thing  to  prevent 
going  in  again."  And  so  a  book  or  an  author  that 
proves  unworthy  of  the  introduction  to  the  public,  can 
not  long  float,  notwithstanding  the  outside  supports  in- 
tended to  give  it  buoyancy. 

In  the  case  of  the  author  of  this  volume,  introductory 
words  seem  doubly  needless,  inasmuch  as  he  has  for 
years  earned  his  right  to  the  public  ear.  Aside  from  his 
well-known  service  to  Home  missions  in  the  superintend- 
ence of  this  work  in  Utah  and  surrounding  territory  for 
six  years,  he  has  for  several  years  been  one  of  the 
editorial  staff  of  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World; 
and  has  won  his  way  to  the  readers,  the  world  over,  by 
his  facile  pen,  his  scholarly  research,  his  high  ideals  of 
service,  his  accurate  historical  knowledge,  and  his 
vigorous  style. 

The  outline  of  thought  covered  in  this  "Hundred 
Years  of  Missions,"  is  unique,  and  has  been  followed  in 
no  other  book  of  which  we  know.  There  will  be  found 
here  a  review  of  the  century's  work  in  this  and  other 
lands,  which  will  both  instruct  and  invigorate  the  reader. 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

It  is  perhaps  to  be  regretted  that  the  modesty  of  the  au- 
thor forbade  his  embracing  in  this  volume  a  resume"  of 
his  experiences  among  the  Mormons  of  Salt  Lake  Valley, 
and  of  the  methods  which  he  employed  to  establish 
schools  and  churches  in  those  western  districts  over 
which  he  patiently  plodded  in  prosecution  of  his  great 
work. 

A  good  book  is  a  seed  of  the  kingdom.  May  God  use 
this,  as  the  means  of  a  new  harvest  of  consecrated  lives, 
and  of  gifts  sanctified  by  the  altar  on  which  they  are 


ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON. 


A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA  OF  MISSIONS. 

IT  cannot  but  be  well  worth  while,  by  way  of  intro- 
duction, to  dwell  for  a  moment  upon  the  basis  and 
scope  of  the  obligation  to  undertake,  and  with  all  faith 
and  ardor,  and  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  to  continue  reso- 
lute attempts  to  spread  gospel  truth  and  righteousness 
even  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  There  are  two  words  in 
common  use,  the  one  derived  from  the  Latin  and  the 
other  from  the  Greek,  which  have  the  same  meaning, 
to  send.  The  first  is  mission  (mittd)  with  its  various 
derivatives.  Thus  a  missile  is  something  sent,  as  from 
the  hand,  or  from  a  gun,  and  a  missive  is  a  communica- 
tion sent — commit,  commissioner.  The  other  term  is 
apostle  (apostcllo)  with  its  derivatives.  Hence  an  apos- 
tle, or  missionary,  in  the  original  sense  is  one  sent,  sent 
as  an  ambassador,  sent  to  bear  some  message,  to  per- 
form some  especial  service.  "  Call  "  also  has  the  same 
idea  in  effect.  In  the  particular  case  before  us  the  mission , 
the  apostleship,  the  sending,  relates  of  course  to  publish- 
ing everywhere  abroad  the  need  and  the  fact  of  redemp- 
tion through  the  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God,  or  to  the 
founding  and  building  throughout  every  continent  and 
island  that  blessed  and  glorious  kingdom  which  is 
righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

5 


6  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

And  the  all-important  question  is,  Who  are  called  to  be 
apostles,  missionaries  ?  Or,  Who  are  sent  upon  this  su- 
preme business,  are  commissioned  and  commanded  to 
go  ?  According  to  the  New  Testament  conception  of 
things,  that  is.  Is  it  the  few,  or  the  many  ?  Certain 
ones  peculiarly  gifted  by  nature  and  carefully  trained  be- 
sides, or  the  small  and  the  great  together,  the  whole 
multitude  of  disciples,  in  a  word,  everybody  ?  We  are 
accustomed  to  distinguish  men  by  classes  and  occupa- 
tions, and  division  of  labor  in  our  day  more  than  in  any 
former  time  is  the  law  of  civilized  life.  And  we  say 
properly,  To  every  man  his  work.  Let  the  shoemaker 
stick  to  his  last.  Is  there  anything  corresponding  to 
this  in  the  great  matter  of  announcing  to  all  men  the 
glad  tidings  ? 

Certainly,  with  the  Gospels  and  the  Epistles  as  our 
guide,  but  one  reply  is  possible.  All  are  missionaries, 
every  one  of  every  age,  class,  and  condition ;  all  without 
exception,  and  all  equally.  The  obligation  (or  better, 
call  it  privilege)  is  universal,  being  inherent  in  our  call- 
ing as  Christians,  the  followers  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  To 
be  missionaries,  apostles,  witnesses,  heralds,  ambassa- 
dors, is  our  chief  business  on  earth :  for  this  were  we 
made,  and  for  this  were  we  saved,  renewed.  Every 
soul  is  sent  on  a  mission  which  is  life-long,  and  to  the 
whole  world.  Or,  all  are  drafted  into  the  Lord's  army 
— rather  are  expected  to  volunteer — for  the  tremendous 
campaign  to  vanquish  sin  and  to  rescue  the  race.  There 
is  no  commutation  for  money,  nor  are  substitutes  al- 
lowed. Thus  enlisted,  under  orders  and  drill,  it  is  for 
each  one  to  be  able,  and  always  ready  and  eager,  to 
endure  hardness  and  make  the  largest  achievements. 
Of  course  not  all  go  to  foreign  lands  any  more  than  al) 


THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEA  OF  MISSIONS.  7 

enter  the  pulpit.  As  somebody  well  expresses  the  fact : 
"It  is  only  some  who  are  called  to  the  heathen,  but 
all  are  called  for  the  heathen."  The  divine  Captain  as- 
signs to  service  as  he  will ;  it  is  ours  only  with  alacrity  to 
obey.  Some  do  duty  as  home  guards,  some  in  the  field 
and  at  the  front.  Scouts  are  required  and  skirmishers. 
There  is  the  indispensable  infantry  arm,  and  the  cav- 
alry, and  the  artillery,  the  engineer  corps,  and  the  hos- 
pital detail.  Three  sisters  dwelt  in  Edinburgh  who  said : 
' '  All  of  us  should  not  stay  at  home.  One  of  us  can  go 
to  the  foreign  field,  and  the  two  remaining  will  support 
her."  A  teacher  in  one  of  the  public  schools  of  Scot- 
land receives  a  salary  of  $1,000,  lives  upon  half,  and  with 
the  other  half  maintains  a  missionary  in  China.  It  mat- 
ters not  what,  or  where,  so  long  as  the  same  evangelizing 
spirit  bears  sway.  All  are  equally  in  the  service,  are 
true  missionaries  of  the  cross,  and  will  share  equally  in 
the  blessed  day  of  reward. 

The  Moravian  Church,  as  no  other  since  the  days  of 
the  apostles,  has  caught  this  New  Testament  conception 
of  things  and  from  first  to  last  has  held  it  steadfastly. 
The  entire  membership  constitutes  an  organized  mission- 
ary body.  It  lives  only  to  establish  and  maintain  evan- 
gelizing undertakings  in  the  lands  of  darkness.  It  has 
no  other  errand  so  important  upon  earth.  As  Bishop 
Levering  admirably  explains :  "  Whenever  men  or 
women  unite  with  us  in  church  fellowship  we  endeavor 
to  make  them  feel  that  they  are  entering  a  great  mission- 
ary society."  A  wonderfully  large  proportion  of  the 
members  are  actually  toiling  upon  pagan  soil.  But 
what  is  even  more  to  the  purpose,  those  who  remain  at 
home  by  no  means  count  themselves  free  from  responsi- 
bility, and  at  liberty  to  look  on  without  concern  and 


8  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

be  at  ease ;  but  hold  themselves  subject  to  call,  and  by 
warm  sympathy,  by  prayer  constant  and  fervent,  as  well 
as  by  gifts  of  money  which  cost  no  slight  self-denial, 
lend  inspiration  and  courage  to  the  sorely  burdened  toil- 
ers at  the  front,  and  hence  effectually  help  forward  the 
work.  And,  unaccountably,  the  Mormons,  whose  name 
not  unjustly  has  become  a  synonym  for  divers  moral 
abominations,  from  the  beginning  have  possessed  some- 
thing of  the  same  idea  of  the  general  duty  and  privil- 
ege, and  it  is  in  this  marked  feature  of  their  church 
polity  that  much  of  the  secret  of  the  phenomenal  growth 
and  endurance  of  the  Latter-day  organization  is  to  be 
found.  Every  young  man  is  trained  to  fitness  for  mis- 
sionary service,  and  when  appointed  by  the  authorities 
is  expected  to  go  no  matter  where,  to  lands  near  or 
remote,  and  wholly  at  his  own  charges,  in  reaching  the 
field  designated,  in  supporting  himself  while  engaged  in 
seeking  candidates  for  baptism,  nor  less  in  returning 
when  permission  has  been  granted. 

In  Carey's  phrase :  "  Over  yonder  in  India  is  a  gold 
mine ;  I  will  descend  and  dig,  but  you  at  home  must 
hold  the  ropes."  And  something  such  of  deep  solici- 
tude and  hungering  desire  for  the  world's  redemption  as 
Carey  had,  belongs  to  every  disciple.  Carey  of  whom  his 
sister  says,  that  from  the  date  of  his  conversion  she 
never  heard  him  pray  without  putting  up  a  petition  for 
the  "  poor  slaves  and  the  perishing  heathen."  And 
further,  that  more  than  once  she  had  seen  him  standing 
in  his  garden  with  face  long  upturned  and  gazing  into 
vacancy,  wholly  lost  to  his  surroundings  as  he  con- 
templated the  woful  condition  of  the  millions  without 
knowledge  of  a  Saviour.  And  if  the  principle  thus  laid 
down  as  the  only  one  able  to  pass  muster  as  truly 


THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEA  OF  MISSIONS.  9 

Christian,  applies  to  the  multitude,  to  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  children  of  God,  how  much  more  to  the  elect  ones 
who  stand  as  leaders,  teachers,  and  exemplars  to  the 
body  of  believers  !  The  minister  of  the  gospel  who  is 
not  a  true  missionary  in  spirit,  in  aim  and  in  daily  en- 
deavor, has  certainly  mistaken  his  calling  and  is  where 
he  does  not  belong.  At  a  most  vital  point  such  an  one 
is  unfit  for  the  sacred  office  and  a  hinderer  of  the 
work. 

This  then  is  the  conclusion :  Every  minister,  and 
every  member,  in  every  church,  is  an  apostle,  a  mis- 
sionary, and  as  such  is  in  duty  bound  to  go  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  And 
that  solemn  command  signifies  for  substance  at  least  as 
much  as  this :  Learn  to  pray  continually  and  meaning 
what  we  say,  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on 
earth,  since,  as  Carey  so  pertinently  suggested  to  his 
brethren — who  for  years  had  been  assembling  at 
stated  times  to  supplicate  for  the  universal  spread  of 
Christianity,  though  with  folded  hands — "  to  pray  while 
attempting  nothing  is  but  mockery  and  hypocrisy." 
And  that  tremendous  petition  includes  not  merely 
"  my  church,"  "  my  beloved  denomination,"  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  the  regions  where  the  richly-en- 
dowed Anglo-Saxons  dwell,  or  within  the  bounds  of 
Christendom,  or  where  civilization  bears  sway.  We  are 
to  be  well-informed,  deeply  interested,  full  of  solicitude 
and  longing,  all  aglow  with  zeal  for  the  entire  work  of 
the  gospel,  whether  in  America,  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
Australia,  India,  China,  Tibet,  Patagonia,  or  the 
islands  of  the  sea.  Even  so  extensively  are  we  to  seek 
to  save  lost  men,  and  to  stir  up  others  to  do  the  same. 
Each  saint  has  an  undivided  interest  in  the  whole  stu- 


IO  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

pendous  task,  an  interest  which  is  equal  to  the  sum 
total  of  all  that  lies  within  the  limit  of  his  ability.  As 
Paul  affirmed,  "  I  am  debtor  to  all." 

Exactly  so  it  was  that  the  first  disciples  of  Christ 
understood  the  import  of  their  calling,  and  accordingly 
we  find  them  almost  at  once,  and  one  and  all,  with 
glowing  love  and  a  faith  which  knew  not  how  to  flinch, 
engaging  in  labors  most  abundant  for  the  diffusion  of 
the  new  faith  in  every  direction.  This  characteristic  is 
all  the  more  significant  because  with  respect  to  prosely- 
ting, wielding  an  aggressive  force  against  antagonistic  re- 
ligions, Judaism  was  at  the  antipodes  to  this,  for  its  spirit 
was  strangely  indifferent  and  even  exclusive.  Neverthe- 
less, some  of  the  loftiest  souls  which  Palestine  produced, 
and  especially  the  latsr  prophets,  plainly  foresaw  and  fore- 
told in  language  rem^kably  definite  and  most  inspiring, 
a  happy  time  when  all  barriers  between  Jew  and  Gentile 
should  be  thrown  down,  when  idolatry  and  superstition 
should  everywhere  be  destroyed,  and  Jehovah  receive 
universal  homage.  A  stone  cut  out  the  mountain  with- 
out hands  was  to  become  a  great  mountain  and  fill  the 
whole  earth.  His  dominion  shall  be  from  sea  to  sea, 
and  from  the  river  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  All  shall 
know  me  from  the  least  to  the  greatest. 

It  is  true  that  when  Jesus  commenced  his  ministry, 
for  a  season  he  appeared  to  confine  his  attention  ex- 
clusively to  the  chosen  people.  Thus  to  the  Syro- 
Phenician  woman  he  declared,  I  am  not  sent  but  unto  the 
lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.  And  sending  out  the 
Twelve  on  a  tour  of  evangelization  he  commanded, 
"  Go  not  into  the  way  of  the  Gentiles,  and  into  any  city 
of  the  Samaritans  enter  ye  not."  But  all  this  was  ex- 
ceptional, and  provisional.  And  over  against  it,  as  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  IDEA   OF  MISSIONS.  II 

substance  of  his  teaching,  the  marrow  of  the  gospel  is 
this :  "  God  so  loved  the  world.  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted 
up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  The  look  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  is  world-wide,  the  horizon  is  at  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  His  parting  command  to  his  disciples  is  most 
explicit.  He  had  already  affirmed,  "  This  gospel  must 
first  be  preached  in  all  the  world,  for  a  witness  unto  all 
nations."  And  now  the  bidding  is,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  Yc 
shall  be  witnesses  unto  me,  both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all 
Judea,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 


CHAPTER  H. 

MISSIONS  IN  THE  EARLY  CENTURIES. 

IT  was  with  such  commands  and  promises  sounding  in 
their  ears,  that  the  Master  left  the  little  company  of 
faithful  ones  which  he  had  gathered,  and  ascended  to 
the  skies.  These  were  the  marching  orders,  this  was  the 
mission  on  which  they  were  sent.  And  though  for 
months,  and  even  years,  they  little  apprehended  the 
prodigious  length,  and  breadth,  and  height,  and  depth 
of  its  import — for  the  vast  Roman  Empire  constituted 
but  an  insignificant  fraction  of  "the  world,"  and 
fifteen  centuries  were  destined  to  pass  before  the  western 
half  would  be  made  known — they  set  out  in  dead  earnest 
to  obey.  At  least  when  at  Pentecost  the  Spirit  of  power 
had  been  shed  upon  them  from  on  high,  and  the  tran- 
scendent results  to  follow  were  foreshadowed  in  the 
marvelous  gift  of  tongues,  and  the  various  nations  (not 
less  than  fifteen,  and  coming  from  three  continents), 
through  their  representatives  then  gathered  providentially 
in  Jerusalem,  and  in  order  first  to  share,  and  afterwards 
to  diffuse,  north,  south,  east  and  west  the  heavenly  en- 
duement.  Apparently  months  elapsed  without  any  dis- 
position arising  to  journey  far  from  the  vicinity  of  the 
temple  to  tell  of  the  crucified  and  risen  One,  and 
divine  compulsion  was  required  to  thrust  these  evan- 
gelists out  into  a  broader  sphere  of  activity.  By  the 
sharp  persecution  which  followed  the  death  of  Stephen 
"  they  were  all  scattered  abroad  throughout  the  regions 

12 


MISSIONS   IN   THE   EARLY   CENTURIES.  1 3 

of  Judea  and  Samaria,  except  the  apostles,"  and  they 
who  were  thus  expelled  "  went  everywhere  preaching 
the  word."  Among  the  rest,  to  the  Samaritans,  and  a 
notable  ingathering  ensued.  Then  Philip  under  a 
special  commission  went  southward  on  the  road  to 
Egypt,  met  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  and  revealed  to  him 
the  way  of  life,  and  thus  perhaps  the  gospel  was  carried 
to  the  distant  region  of  the  upper  Nile  or  beyond. 
Next,  constrained  by  a  heavenly  vision,  Peter  took  a 
daring  step,  and  made  an  innovation  which  to  many 
was  startling  and  shocking.  For  salvation  was  offered 
to  Cornelius,  an  out-and-out  Gentile,  resident  in  Caesarea, 
a  city  almost  wholly  Roman,  and  standing  upon  the 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  sea  destined  to  play  such 
an  important  part  in  the  future  history  of  Christianity. 
And  a  little  later  still  we  hear  of  the  advent  of  the  new 
faith  into  Antioch,  some  three  hundred  miles  to  the 
north  of  its  birthplace,  that  stirring  and  magnificent, 
but  most  vile  metropolis  of  Syria,  and  wholly  under  the 
sway  of  heathen  ideas  and  practises.  Here  also  many 
were  found  ready  to  embrace  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 
The  city  soon  became  an  illustrious  center  for  evangel- 
istic movements,  and  for  centuries  was  a  rival  to  Alex- 
andria, Constantinople,  and  to  Rome  herself  for  Chris- 
tian learning  and  ecclesiastical  influence. 

But  now  missionary  operations  are  to  enter  upon  an- 
other and  most  momentous  phase  of  development. 
The  conversion  of  Paul  had  occurred  some  years  be- 
fore, his  high  calling  as  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  had 
been  announced  and  accepted,  and  he  was  ready  and 
waiting  to  begin  his  stirring  and  memorable  career. 
And  how  impressive  is  the  language  which  tells  how  he 
was  inducted  into  his  life  work.  As  "  certain  prophets 


14  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

and  teachers"  in  Antioch  "ministered  to  the  Lord, 
and  fasted,  the  Holy  Ghost  said,  "  Separate  me  Barnabas 
and  Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them." 
An  ordination  service  followed,  and  then  they  sailed  for 
Cyprus  on  a  tour  of  evangelization,  passed  through  the 
entire  length  of  the  island,  and  then  crossed  northward 
to  Asia  Minor  visiting  various  important  centers  of  popu- 
lation. After  returning  to  Antioch  to  report  to  the 
church  the  incidents  and  results  of  this  venture  for 
Christ,  by  far  the  most  extended  and  systematic  which 
had  yet  been  made,  a  second  missionary  journey  of 
much  greater  length  was  taken  the  year  following,  at 
first  through  the  same  portions  of  eastern  Asia  Minor  to 
revisit  the  churches  they  had  formed,  and  then  mysteri- 
ously led,  almost  driven,  westward  towards  the  ^Egean. 
About  twenty  years  had  passed  since  Pentecost,  and 
down  to  this  date  to  only  a  little  corner  of  a  single 
continent  had  the  heavenly  message  been  imparted. 
But  now  was  to  be  witnessed  a  significant  enlargement, 
and  Europe  also  was  to  share  the  unspeakable  gift  of  God. 
Here  again  it  was  not  mere  human  desire  and  planning 
which  directed,  but  direct  divine  impulse  and  guidance 
were  vouchsafed.  The  words  are  among  the  weightiest  to 
be  found  in  the  Scriptures.  "  Now  when  they  had  gone 
throughout  the  region  of  Phrygia  and  Galatia,  and  were 
forbidden  to  preach  the  word  in  Asia,  after  they  were 
come  to  Mysia,  they  assayed  to  go  into  Bithynia ;  but 
the  Spirit  suffered  them  not.  And  they,  passing  by 
Mysia,  came  down  to  Troas."  Like  the  Hebrews  at  the 
Red  Sea,  they  were  hedged  in  upon  the  right  hand  and 
the  left,  and  were  also  impelled  from  behind,  and  next 
they  were  to  be  beckoned  forward.  So  how  completely 
was  the  path  marked  out  by  the  finger  of  Him  who  had 


MISSIONS   IN   THE   EARLY   CENTURIES.  15 

promised,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway."  "  And  a  vision 
appeared  to  Paul  in  the  night ;  There  stood  a  man  of 
Macedonia  and  prayed  him,  saying,  Come  over  and  help 
us."  What  a  universe  of  meaning  that  cry  contained. 
In  it,  coupled  with  Paul's  prompt  response,  was  involved 
the  redemption  of  Europe ;  through  Europe  the  redemp- 
tion also  of  America,  and  through  Europe  and  America 
together  the  redemption  of  all  the  continents  and  islands 
upon  the  face  of  the  globe  !  ' '  And  after  that  he  had 
seen  the  vision,  immediately  we  endeavored  to  go  into 
Macedonia,  assuredly  gathering  that  the  Lord  had  called 
us  to  preach  the  gospel  unto  them."  Taking  ship  they 
cross  "in  a  straight  course"  to  Neapolis,  and  journey 
thence,  preaching  as  they  go,  to  Philippi,  to  Thessa- 
lonica,  to  Athens,  to  Corinth.  Finally  the  master-mis- 
sionary appears  in  Rome,  the  metropolis  of  the  world, 
though  going  thither  as  a  prisoner  in  chains.  As  some 
hold,  Spain  also  from  the  lips  of  Paul  heard  first  of 
Christ  and  Him  crucified.  So  far  from  the  place  of  be- 
ginning did  the  knowledge  of  salvation  penetrate  in  a 
single  generation. 

The  attempt  will  not  be  made  to  follow  in  detail  the 
spread  of  Christianity  during  the  early  centuries.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  before  two  hundred  years  had  passed 
the  name  of  Jesus  was  known  and  revered  in  regions  as 
distant  as  Arabia  and  Abyssinia,  in  Armenia,  Persia, 
Media,  Parthia  and  Bactria.  Also  along  the  whole 
southern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  past  Carthage  to 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  By  this  time,  too,  missionaries 
had  gathered  harvests  for  the  gospel  in  Spain,  Gaul 
and  Britain.  Britain  and  Bactria  then  constituted  the 
western  and  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  Church.  It  is 
not  surprising  therefore  that  we  find  Origen,  who  died 


1 6  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

in  258  A.  D.,  expressing  the  confident  belief  thai 
Christianity  "  by  its  inherent  power,  and  without  help 
of  miracle,  would  supplant  the  religion  of  the  heathen." 
It  is  estimated  that  the  number  of  Christians  was  not 
far  from  500,000  at  the  end  of  the  first  century,  had  in- 
creased to  2,000,000  by  the  close  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, and  to  5,000,000  after  another  hundred  years. 
Some  authorities  give  10,000,000  as  the  not  improbable 
figure  for  325  A.  D.,  which  would  amount  to  nearly 
one-tenth  of  the  population  of  the  Roman  Empire.  For 
the  most  part  these  striking  gains  had  been  made  in 
the  cities,  of  which  those  containing  churches  are 
reckoned  at  1,800  at  this  date,  1,000  being  located  in  the 
eastern  portion  of  the  realm  of  the  Caesars.  So  few  were 
the  converts  gathered  from  the  rural  districts  that  pres- 
ently the  terms  villager,  countryman,  agriculturist,  had 
become  equivalents  for  heathen,  pagan. 

And  how  came  it  to  pass  that  such  wonders  of  ad- 
vance and  conquest  were  accomplished  in  so  brief  a 
period  ?  The  explanation  lies  in  part  in  such  sugges- 
tions as  these  :  (i)  The  disciples  were  as  yet  in  the 
fervor  of  their  first  love,  or  the  Christian  faith  was  still 
in  the  enthusiasm  and  vigor  of  youth.  (2)  The  num- 
ber of  missionaries  engaged  was  relatively  very  great.  It 
was  the  general  business  of  believers  to  publish  the  glad 
tidings.  Professional  missionaries  were  not  numerous, 
but  the  delightful  task  was  taken  up  voluntarily,  spon- 
taneously, and  by  those  who  in  the  midst  of  their  daily 
toil  were  evangelists.  The  gospel  was  preached  exten- 
sively and  most  effectively  by  merchants,  craftsmen, 
travelers,  sailors,  soldiers,  even  captives  and  slaves. 
(3)  We  must  recall  the  fact  that  hitherto  the  victories  of 
the  cross  bad  been  won  within  the  limits  of  the  Roman 


MISSIONS   IN   THE   EARLY   CENTURIES.  lj 

dominion,  and  hence  among  civilized  peoples  ;  in  lands 
unified  by  subjection  to  a  common  law,  as  well  as  by  the 
use  of  a  common  language,  the  Greek.  (4)  Besides, 
the  Mediterranean  was  an  all-important  aid  to  evangeli- 
zation, situated  as  it  was  in  the  very  heart  of  the  em- 
pire, with  its  innumerable  bays,  and  its  extensive  com- 
merce. In  connection  with  this  feature  of  the  case  is 
also  to  be  named  the  matchless  system  of  military  roads 
stretching  forth  from  the  capital  city  to  all  the  principal 
provinces,  and  in  that  day,  for  facilitating  the  missionary 
movements  of  Christ's  ambassadors,  the  counterpart  of 
the  railroads  and  steamships  of  our  time.  (5)  And,  a 
most  impressive  providence,  over  the  entire  extent  of 
territory  under  view,  multitudes  of  Jews  were  scattered, 
made  peculiarly  accessible  to  the  truth  by  their  language 
and  training  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  at  least  in  the  first 
century  constituting  "  the  foundation  and  framework  of 
the  churches,  and  the  bulk  of  their  membership."  There 
were  perhaps  some  7,000,000  in  all,  especially  numerous 
in  northern  Africa,  Spain,  south-eastern  Gaul  along  the 
Rhone,  and  on  the  Tiber,  and  numerous  also  in  Armenia, 
Parthia,  southern  Arabia  and  Abyssinia. 

Here,  then,  was  found  a  population  of  at  least  100,- 
000,000,  covering  an  area  of  at  least  2,000,000  square 
miles,  lying  in  the  temperate  zone  and  about  the  shores 
of  a  great  internal  sea.  Surely  for  situation  nothing 
could  be  more  favorable.  It  was  largely  because  of 
these  same  facts  that  Rome  conquered  so  easily,  and 
retained  her  dominion  so  long.  "  With  the  Roman 
government  to  police  the  world,  with  highways  and  har- 
bors to  facilitate  journeys  by  land  and  sea,  with  a  uni- 
versal language  at  their  command,  and  with  Jewish  peo- 
ple and  prayer-houses  distributed  all  over  the  empire,  the 


18  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

/ 

apostles  went  forth  to  conquer."  No  wonder  then  that 
by  Constantine's  day  the  Christian  faith  had  become  so 
prevalent  in  the  provinces,  from  the  Euphrates  to  the 
Atlantic,  from  the  German  forest  to  the  cataracts  of  the 
Nile,  that  it  was  no  more  than  wise  statecraft  on  his  part 
to  grant  it  full  toleration,  and  for  his  successors  to 
adopt  it  as  the  religion  of  state.  And  thus  it  had  come 
to  pass  in  a  little  more  than  three  hundred  years,  and 
with  no  weapons  but  truth  and  righteousness,  loved  and 
lived,  and  taught,  that  the  crucified  Nazarene  had  van- 
quished Csesar !  By  the  close  of  the  fourth  century 
paganism  in  the  empire  was  practically  extinct. 


CHAPTER  III. 

CONVERSION  OF  WESTERN  AND  NORTHERN  EUROPE. 

BEFORE  Christianity  had  supplanted  idolatry  within 
the  limits  of  Roman  rule,  these  capacious  bounds  had 
Deen  crossed  at  various  points  by  fervid  souls  in  eager 
search  of  trophies  for  their  Master.  Armenia  was  the 
nrst  country  remote  from  Palestine  to  be  completely 
evangelized.  This  achievement  was  accomplished  early 
in  the  fourth  century,  with  Gregory  the  Illuminator  as 
chief  instrument,  and  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into 
the  vernacular  was  supplied  to  the  people.  As  early  as 
320  A.  D.,  by  Frumentius  and  others,  many  flourishing 
churches  had  been  planted  in  Abyssinia.  And  it  was 
probably  not  much  later  than  350  A.  D.  that  Jesus  and 
the  resurrection  were  proclaimed  in  exceedingly  distant 
southern  India.  The  St.  Thomas  Christians  of  the  Mal- 
abar coast,  who  were  "discovered"  a  century  since, 
trace  their  descent  from  that  ancient  beginning.  The 
power  of  the  gospel  had  also  been  felt  by  the  Goths 
dwelling  to  the  north  of  the  Danube,  having  been  intro- 
duced by  captives  taken  during  a  foray  in  Cappadocia, 
and  so  many  were  presently  baptized,  that  in  348  A.  D. 
Ulphilas  was  sent  as  bishop  to  these  barbarians,  who 
constructed  for  them  a  written  language  and  translated 
into  it  the  Word  of  God.  Then  it  was  that,  esteeming 
the  Gothic  saints  already  sufficiently  bloodthirsty  and 
fond  of  war,  this  distinguished  apostle  felt  called  upon 
for  prudence's  sake  to  omit  from  his  version  the  books 


20  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

of  Kings  and  Chronicles !  The  significance  of  their 
conversion  appeared  later  when  under  Alaric  overrun- 
ning Italy  and  capturing  Rome,  (402-10),  and  later  still 
when  pouring  over  the  Alps  a  resistless  tide  into  Gaul 
and  Spain,  (466-88),  the  Bible  was  carried  with  them, 
and  among  various  other  savage  tribes  were  diffused  such 
moderate  measures  of  Christian  doctrine  and  virtue  as 
they  themselves  possessed. 

By  the  period  which  we  have  now  reached,  a  radical 
and  most  vicious  innovation  had  been  introduced  into 
the  means  and  methods  employed  for  the  propagation  of 
the  faith.  Heralding  for  Christ,  evangelizing,  making 
proselytes,  had  come  to  be  a  task  altogether  too  lofty  and 
sacred  for  the  common  herd  to  perform,  and  therefore  it 
was  committed  entirely  to  the  hands  of  a  class,  the 
clergy  to  wit,  with  the  monks  as  prominent  coadjutors, 
and  later  was  given  over  mainly  to  the  various  religious 
orders,  like  the  Franciscans,  Benedictines,  Jesuits,  etc. 
It  was  in  398  that  lay  preaching  was  finally  forbidden. 
Not  far  from  the  same  time,  and  as  a  part  of  the  general 
serious  departure  from  the  spirituality  of  the  early  cen- 
turies, church  and  state  went  into  permanent  partner- 
ship, and  thus  politics  began  to  defile  and  degrade  re- 
ligion, while  kings  and  armies  began  to  compel  an  out- 
ward acceptance  of  established  doctrinal  beliefs  and  ec- 
clesiastical rites.  This  lamentable  apostasy,  though  in 
part  the  cause,  was  also  the  effect,  of  the  heathenizing 
and  barbarizing  process  now  everywhere  going  on 
through  the  irruption  into  all  quarters  of  the  empire  of 
horde  after  horde  of  ferocious  Goths,  Vandals  and 
Huns.  And  we  find  here  also  the  reason  why  from 
henceforth  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was 
so  slow  as  compared  with  first  centuries.  The  rank  and 


CONVERSION  OF  WESTERN  AND  NORTHERN  EUROPE.     21 

file  of  the  Lord's  army  was  kept  not  in  constant  cam- 
paigning and  at  the  battle  front,  but  on  dress  parade,  or 
busy  seeking  each  his  own  safety,  while  only  the  officers 
were  found  playing  the  soldier's  part,  engaged  in  the 
thick  of  the  fight,  inflicting  blows  and  wounds  upon  the 
foe. 

As  yet  only  a  portion  of  Europe  had  been  redeemed 
from  the  worship  of  false  gods.  For  centuries  to  come, 
and  by  the  hundred,  and  the  thousand,  missionaries  will 
be  required  to  push  forward  into  the  central  regions  of 
the  continent,  and  to  make  their  way  to  the  furthest 
limits  upon  the  west  and  north  and  east.  The  general 
course  of  advance  was  as  follows.  Already  the  Greek 
and  Roman  peoples  had  accepted  the  yoke  of  the  gospel, 
the  next  to  be  subdued  were  the  Celtic  tribes,  after  these 
followed  the  Teutonic  races,  then  the  Scandinavians, 
and  finally  the  Slavs. 

Britain  had  been  Christianized  in  some  degree  while 
under  the  sway  of  Rome,  but  in  the  fall  of  the  empire 
the  legions  were  withdrawn,  the  Anglo-Saxons  made  con- 
quest of  the  bulk  of  the  island,  and  a  lapse  into  pagan- 
ism followed.  It  was  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  after 
the  famous  landing  of  Hengist  and  Horsa  that  Augustine 
was  sent  (596)  from  Italy  to  rebuild  the  walls  of  the 
church.  He  wrought  resolutely  and  with  skill,  worthy 
helpers  and  successors  carried  on  the  work,  but  it  was 
not  until  King  Alfred's  day  (871-901),  or  after  four 
hundred  years,  that  little  England  could  be  considered 
wholly  Christian.  Why  then  should  it  be  thought  a 
strange  and  discouraging  fact  that  in  giant  India,  after  a 
single  century  of  toil,  and  in  giant  China  whose  gates 
have  been  unbarred  less  than  fifty  years,  there  yet  re- 
maineth  very  much  land  to  be  possessed  ?  It  is  to  St. 


22  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

Patrick  that  the  honor  belongs  of  being  pioneer  and 
founder  in  Ireland.  Born  in  Scotland  and  taken  thence 
as  a  slave,  it  was  in  440  that  he  began  his  evangelizing 
career,  and  such  were  the  fervor  and  energy  with  which 
he  labored,  that  ere  long  Erin  had  become  the  ' '  Isle  of 
Saints."  That  is,  it  was  abundantly  stocked  with  mon- 
asteries, and  from  these  for  generations  and  centuries 
poured  forth  a  succession  of  monks  in  swarms,  burning 
with  ardent  desire  to  make  proselytes  to  the  faith  in  all 
the  dark  places  of  heathen  Europe.  In  563  Columba 
with  twelve  like-minded  companions  crossed  over  from 
Ireland  to  Scotland,  and  founded  upon  lona  a  monastery 
destined  long  to  remain  "a  beacon  light  for  Christian- 
ity for  all  of  north-western  Europe."  For  four  hundred 
years  after  him  his  spiritual  children  were  known  far  and 
wide  "  as  representing  at  once  pure  gospel  teaching  and 
discipline,  sound  learning  and  Christ-like  zeal."  Little 
by  little,  by  influences  flowing  forth  from  lona,  Scotland 
was  brought  from  darkness  to  light,  and  England  besides 
as  far  south  as  the  Humber.  Moreover  from  that  same 
island-sanctuary  was  despatched  a  host  of  monks,  "  an 
army  of  Scots,"  to  invade  the  Continent,  spreading 
themselves  over  Gaul  and  Germany  in  particular,  bent 
on  errands  of  salvation.  It  happened  also  that  at  the 
same  time  missionaries  were  entering  the  same  regions 
from  the  south,  and  under  an  impulse  from  Rome.  The 
conversion  of  Clovis  and  his  Franks  (496)  was  eminently 
characteristic  of  the  times.  Before  a  great  battle  with 
another  horde  of  barbarians,  and  looking  anxiously  in 
all  directions  for  powerful  auxiliaries,  he  made  a  vow, 
that  if  victorious,  he  would  accept  Christian  baptism. 
His  enemies  were  duly  vanquished,  his  part  of  the  bar- 
gain was  faithfully  kept,  and  with  three  thousand  war- 


CONVERSION  OF  WESTERN  AND  NORTHERN  EUROPE.     23 

riors  he  received  the  sacred  rite.  It  was  this  same  royal 
neophyte  who,  hearing  a  glowing  sermon  upon  the  cruci- 
fixion, and  being  much  wrought  upon  thereby,  exclaimed 
with  warmth,  generous,  if  not  exactly  evangelical,  "  Had 
I  been  there  with  my  loyal  Franks,  that  most  wicked 
deed  would  have  been  avenged  upon  the  Jews!  " 

This  was  the  general  mode  of  procedure  in  those  days. 
A  monastery  was  founded  in  some  convenient  location, 
and  was  made  a  center  from  which  the  monks  issued  in 
all  directions  to  preach  the  truth  to  their  pagan  neigh- 
bors. Thus  Columban,  the  apostle  of  Gaul,  built  a  cele- 
brated one  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Vosges  mountains 
which  became  the  parent  of  several,  and  his  friend  Gal- 
lus  another  in  Switzerland,  later  known  as  St.  Gall. 
From  these,  as  from  scores  and  hundreds  of  similar  in- 
stitutions, light  was  shed  on  thousands  and  millions  of 
benighted  souls.  In  southern  and  central  Germany 
Boniface  was  the  most  eminent  teacher  and  organizer, 
though  by  720  when  he  entered  upon  his  labors,  exten- 
sive beginnings  had  already  been  made  by  the  Irish  evan- 
gelists. This  gifted  and  perfervid  ecclesiastic  is  said  to 
have  baptized  100,000  pagans ;  he  rose  to  the  rank  of 
archbishop  and  apostolic  vicar,  and  finally  in  the  midst 
of  a  most  remarkable  career  died  a  martyr  to  his  zeal, 
perishing  by  heathen  hands.  As  yet  the  Saxons  were 
wholly  untouched.  And  the  measures  employed  for  the 
subjugation  of  these  determined  worshipers  of  false 
gods,  though  in  frequent  use  for  centuries  before  and 
after,  can  scarcely  be  catalogued  as  according  to  New 
Testament  precedent.  Charlemagne  was  the  zealous 
leader  in  the  long  crusade,  and  the  sword  was  the  ex- 
ceedingly efficacious  instrument  of  salvation.  After 
many  campaigns  (772-804)  and  incredible  slaughter, 


24  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

such  of  the  sturdy  tribesmen  as  survived  gave  up  the 
struggle,  and  by  the  wholesale  were  baptized.  What  is 
it  but  surprising  to  find  that  in  the  Reformation  days  it 
was  from  these  same  Saxons,  brought  into  the  church  by 
the  dire  compulsion  of  threatened  death,  that  the  purer 
faith  should  find  many  of  its  stanchest  friends  ! 

The  Scandinavian  nations  were  next  taken  in  hand, 
and  one  after  another,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway 
were  persuaded  to  forsake  Odin  and  Thor,  and  swear  al- 
legiance to  Jesus  Christ.  Alas,  too  often  by  the  man- 
date of  the  civil  power,  and  the  stress  of  brute  force, 
though  Ansgar  (826-45),  a  monk  of  spirit  most  apos- 
tolic, also  played  a  prominent  part.  From  Norway  the 
gospel  was  carried  to  Iceland  (1000),  and  to  Greenland 
(1126). 

And  finally  redemption  came  to  the  Slavs  in  eastern 
Europe.  But  not  from  Rome,  from  Constantinople 
rather,  and  the  Greek  Church.  The  famed  instruments 
were  two  brothers,  Cyrill  and  Methodius,  and  860  is  the 
date  of  their  advent  to  the  scene  of  their  evangelizing 
activity.  Methodius  was  a  painter  of  power,  and  find- 
ing the  pagan  heart  most  obdurate,  and  not  easily 
reached  through  the  ear  alone,  he  produced  on  canvas  a 
picture  of  the  Last  Judgment,  so  realistic,  and  terrible 
withal,  that  the  mighty  monarch  beholding,  was  struck 
through  with  terror,  and  in  his  trepidation  was  glad  to 
submit  to  baptism,  and  his  subjects  followed  his  example. 
A  version  of  the  Scriptures  helped  to  deepen  the  con- 
verting work  and  render  it  more  lasting.  Russia  was 
among  the  last  countries  of  Europe  to  turn  away  from 
the  worship  of  heathen  divinities,  and  the  momentous 
revolution  was  wrought  on  this  wise.  Olga,  the  grand- 
mother of  King  Vladimir,  had  embraced  the  truth  some 


CONVERSION  OF  WESTERN  AND  NORTHERN  EUROPE.     25 

years  before.  But  as  for  the  monarch  himself,  he  was 
emphatically  a  man  of  blood,  a  thorough -going  savage 
and  brute,  and  among  the  rest  possessed  of  a  super- 
abundance of  wives.  However,  for  some  reason,  he 
concluded  to  change  his  "religion,"  and  sent  out  am- 
bassadors to  investigate  the  theological  tenets  and  eccle- 
siastical forms,  in  particular,  of  Judaism,  Mohammedan- 
ism, the  Roman  and  the  Greek  churches.  The  mag- 
nificence of  the  worship  prevalent  in  Constantinople 
pleased  him  most ;  and  so,  combining  politics  and  piety 
in  an  elegant  manner,  he  promised  the  Eastern  emperor 
to  turn  Christian  on  condition  that  he  would  bestow  his 
sister  in  marriage;  and  strengthened  the  offer  with  a 
threat  of  war  in  case  she  was  refused  him.  The  wed- 
ding came  off,  Vladimir  with  his  twelve  sons  were  bap- 
tized in  the  Dnieper  at  Kieff,  the  chief  idol  was  flung 
into  the  same  stream,  and  then  the  entire  population 
immersed  themselves  while  Greek  priests  read  the  bap- 
tismal service  from  the  banks  !  This  spectacular  event 
occurred  in  983.  And  who  is  able  to  estimate  the  re- 
sults of  this  "  conversion  "  so  earthy  in  all  its  phases? 
For  so  it  was  that  Russia  was  changed,  at  least  in  name 
and  form,  from  pagan  to  Christian,  and  Siberia  also 
when  it  was  conquered  by  Russian  arms ;  so  that  in  this 
strange  way  something  like  100,000,000  were  brought 
within  the  pale  of  Christianity,  and  not  far  from  one- 
fifth  of  the  area  of  the  globe  ! 

Mention  should  here  be  made  of  two  other  note- 
worthy historic  incidents  which  belong  to  this  period. 
The  Nestorians  from  Persia  were  active  for  centuries  in 
spreading  the  gospel  (498-1100),  and  from  the  very 
midst  of  the  deadly  Mohammedan  foe  continued  to 
evangelize  far  to  the  south  and  east.  Little  can  be  told 


26  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

of  the  scope  or  results  of  their  efforts  to  make  Christ 
known,  though  one  monument  still  survives  to  demon- 
strate that  missionaries  crossed  the  tremendous  deserts 
and  mountains  of  interior  Asia,  and  halted  not  until  the 
Chinese  Empire  had  been  entered.  At  Si-ngan-fu  an 
inscription  cut  in  stone  fixes  their  presence  there  in  781. 
But  in  the  meantime,  while  the  Church  had  been 
making  these  most  substantial  gains  in  various  directions, 
in  other  quarters  losses  almost  commensurate  had  been 
suffered.  For  the  Prophet  of  Mecca  had  finished  his 
career  (642),  and  his  fanatical  followers  had  carried  the 
crescent  triumphant  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar.  Palestine  was  now  Mohammedan,  and  much 
of  western  Asia.  Egypt  also,  and  the  whole  of  northern 
Africa.  In  Spain,  too,  the  Moslem  had  vanquished  the 
Christian.  We  can  scarcely  appreciate  the  appalling 
calamities  which  befell  the  Church  during  three  or  four 
centuries,  marked  by  the  repeated  and  overwhelming 
irruptions  of  the  barbarians,  and  followed  so  soon  by 
other  centuries  of  resistless  onsets  from  the  Arabs, 
Saracens,  Mongols,  and  Turks.  The  marvel  is  that 
from  such  boundless  confusion  and  catastrophe  Chris- 
tianity emerged  possessed  of  any  aggressive  force,  with 
life  even. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  NON-MISSIONARY  CENTURIES. 

DURING  the  thousand  years  which  had  elapsed  since 
the  Great  Commission  was  given,  the  glad  tidings  had 
been  carried  from  Ireland  to  China,  or  across  two  con- 
tinents, that  is,  over  one  hundred  and  twenty  degrees  of 
longitude,  more  than  a  third  of  the  distance  around  the 
globe ;  and  from  the  Arctic  regions  in  Iceland  and 
Greenland,  to  the  equator  in  India  and  Abyssinia.  Europe 
was  now  quite  thoroughly  evangelized.  But  during  the 
next  five  centuries,  &  period  just  about  half  as  long,  no 
further  advances  were  to  be  made,  and  instead  most 
serious  losses  of  territory  were  to  be  suffered.  The 
Christian  Church  had  become  semi-barbarized  and 
semi-paganized  as  a  result  of  the  overthrow  of  the 
ancient  civilization  by  the  irruptions  of  the  Teutonic, 
Slavic  and  Tatar  hordes,  wave  upon  wave,  and  by  the 
baptism  on  such  easy  terms  of  so  many  millions.  A  long 
term  ensued  of  anarchy  and  chaos,  civil,  social  and  re- 
ligious, and  of  spiritual  vigor  there  was  next  to  none. 
And  besides,  in  the  east  and  south  Islam  had  made 
terrible  encroachments,  with  others  yet  in  store. 
Spain  had  been  invaded  by  the  Moors  in  711,  and 
was  destined  to  remain  Mohammedan  for  nearly  eight 
hundred  years.  In  1453  Constantinople  was  captured, 
the  Ottoman  arms  swept  all  before  them  to  the  Adriatic 
and  the  Balkans,  while  as  late  as  1529,  and  again  in 
1683  Vienna  was  besieged.  In  Russia  for  centuries 


28  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

(1238-1462)  the  "Golden  Horde"  was  in  possession. 
And  further  east  by  Tamerlane  and  his  successors,  the 
Nestorians,  long  famous  for  missionary  zeal,  were  so 
savagely  dealt  with  and  so  nearly  annihilated,  that  they 
never  in  any  degree  recovered  their  proselyting  ardor. 
Such  were  some  of  the  unspeakable  calamities  which  in 
long  succession  befell  the  kingdom  during  the  Dark 
Ages. 

During  a  large  portion  of  the  period  between  the 
completion  of  the  conversion  of  Europe  and  the  out- 
burst of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  whatever  of  re- 
ligious enthusiasm  and  zeal  and  aggressive  force  Chris- 
tendom contained  were  expended,  either  within  its  own 
bounds  upon  heretics  and  such  like,  or  else  upon  the 
Crusades  (1095-1291).  These  astounding  undertakings, 
so  sublime  in  some  of  their  aspects,  and  in  others  so  ab- 
surd, may  not  improperly  be  counted  as  missionary  in  a 
sense.  The  Christian  world  was  now  shut  in  by  the 
Atlantic  on  the  west,  and  by  Arctic  ice  on  the  north, 
while  Mohammedanism  formed  an  impassable  barrier  on 
the  south  and  east.  Therefore  if  the  boundaries  were  to 
be  enlarged  in  any  direction,  it  must  be  by  re-conquer- 
ing lands  now  under  the  sway  of  the  prophet.  For 
almost  two  hundred  years  popes  and  princes  by  the 
score  devoted  themselves  to  the  accomplishment  of  this 
result.  And  their  design,  pursued  with  incredible  ardor 
and  persistence,  and  looking  to  the  deliverance  of  the 
Holy  Sepulcher  and  Holy  I,and  from  alien  and  accursed 
hands,  though  attended  with  such  appalling  expenditure 
of  treasure  and  life,  and  ending  in  complete  failure,  in 
its  results,  direct  and  indirect,  was  notwithstanding  of 
immense  value  to  Christianity  and  civilization. 

In  the  meantime  "  home  missions,"  of  a  sortcharac- 


THE  NON-MISSIONARY   CENTURIES.  89 

teristic  of  the  times,  were  not  forgotten.  In  other 
words,  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers  that  be,  were 
closely  leagued  together  to  annihilate  heresy  root  and 
branch.  The  course  of  events  of  this  kind  was  this  in 
brief  outline.  The  Albigenses  were  taken  in  hand  for 
rigid  discipline  in  1180-1229.  The  "Holy  Office," 
which  at  a  later  date  blossomed  out  into  the  Spanish  In- 
quisition, was  instituted  in  1229.  In  1415  John  Huss 
was  burned  at  the  stake  for  his  offenses  against  Rome. 
The  woes  of  the  Waldenses  began  in  1475  and  were  not 
over  until  1561.  From  1482  to  1498  Torquemada  was 
hot  against  Moors,  Jews  and  heretical  saints,  with  dun- 
geon, rack  and  flame.  In  1498  Savonarola  sealed  his 
testimony  to  gospel  truth  and  righteousness  with  his 
blood.  From  1535  even  down  to  the  French  Revolu- 
tion the  Huguenots  suffered  all  manner  of  sorrows  and 
pains  for  conscience's  sake,  the  climax  of  woe  following 
the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in  1685.  In 
I555>  under  Bloody  Mary,  Latimer  and  Ridley  perished 
at  the  stake,  and  Cranmer  the  next  year.  In  1567-98 
Philip  II.  of  Spain  undertook  to  punish  the  heretics  of 
Holland  with  the  Duke  of  Alva  as  his  precious  instru- 
ment. And  in  1572  occurred  the  dreadful  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew. 

In  the  midst  of  these  days  of  darkness  only  one  name 
appears  at  all  worthy  to  rank  among  the  fore-runners  of 
Eliot,  and  Ziegenbalg,  and  Carey,  and  Judson.  It  is 
Raymond  Lully,  the  portion  of  whose  career  that  is  per- 
tinent to  these  pages  is  included  between  1271  and  1315. 
In  every  particular  his  story  is  characteristic  of  the  la- 
mentable times  in  which  he  lived.  After  a  term  of 
shameless  excesses  we  find  him  suddenly  turning  about, 
and  in  a  monastery  seeking  the  salvation  of  his  soul.  Here 


JO  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

he  became  the  susceptible  subject  of  divers  visions,  by 
which  he  was  led  to  dedicate  himself  to  measureless  and 
lifelong  toil  for  the  conversion  of  Mohammedans  and 
heathen.  During  four  and  forty  years  he  pursued  this 
one  object,  without  once  turning  back,  or  turning  aside. 
For  assistance  in  carrying  out  his  schemes,  application 
was  made  to  one  pope  after  another,  and  to  this  sovereign 
and  that,  but  for  the  most  part  without  the  least  success. 
In  casting  about  for  measures  and  methods  with  which 
to  further  his  plans,  he  hit  upon  his  famous  Ars  Magna, 
a  wonderful  logical  contrivance,  which  "by  mechanic- 
ally presenting  all  the  predicates  which  could  attach  to 
any  subject,  was  adapted  to  answer  any  question  on  any 
topic,  and  would  by  the  cogency  of  its  inferences  neces- 
sarily convert  the  unbeliever,  be  he  Moslem,  or  be  he 
pagan."  This  invention  perfected,  Lully  traveled  far 
and  wide  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  his  "great  art," 
and  endeavored  to  secure  the  founding  in  England, 
France,  Spain,  and  Italy,  of  universities  for  teaching 
oriental  languages  and  training  missionaries.  In  1292 
he  sailed  from  Genoa  for  Tunis  to  apply  in  person  his 
irresistible  convincing  process  to  the  reason  and  con- 
science of  the  obdurate  followers  of  the  man  of  Mecca. 
A  challenge  was  sent  out  to  the  scholars  to  meet  him  in 
high  debate,  and  some  impression  seems  to  have  been 
produced,  for  presently  he  was  ordered  to  leave  the 
country.  Some  years  later  making  a  second  attempt  to 
evangelize  in  Algiers  and  Tunis,  it  was  only  to  be  set 
upon  by  a  furious  mob,  from  whose  hands  he  escaped 
only  by  the  aid  of  a  friendly  Arab  philosopher.  In 
1214,  bent  on  the  same  sacred  errand,  he  entered  the 
same  region  a  third  time,  lived  in  seclusion  for  a  season, 
but  then  venturing  to  preach  openly  against  the  Koran 


THE  NON-MISSIONARY   CENTURIES.  3! 

and  its  author,  was  driven  out  of  the  city  with  stones, 
and  was  so  cruelly  pelted  as  to  die  in  a  few  hours.  Lul- 
ly's  glory  lies  in  this,  that  he  alone  of  his  generation, 
and  indeed  of  the  centuries  just  preceding  and  to  fol- 
low, appears  to  have  cherished  any  deep  concern  for  the 
spiritual  well-being  of  the  great  non-Christian  world. 
And  we  cannot  but  love  and  admire  him  for  his  bound- 
less devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  though  marveling  much 
that  he  should  have  expected  to  be  able  to  lead  sin-cursed 
humanity  captive  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  with  logic 
only  as  a  trusted  weapon.  But  such  was  the  wisdom  of 
the  wisest  in  the  days  of  the  hair-splitting  schoolmen. 
Perhaps  the  chief  value  of  this  pathetic  incident  in  the 
history  of  missions  is  to  be  found  in  the  glimpse  it  af- 
fords of  the  kind  of  Christianity  current  through  all  the 
middle  ages.  The  church  itself  has  sore  need  of  re- 
demption. Therefore,  though  perishing  in  sin,  better 
let  the  world  wait  until  error,  superstition,  and  ungodli- 
ness are  driven  forth  from  the  kingdom,  until  revival, 
and  restoration  to  primeval  purity  and  simplicity  have 
been  vouchsafed  from  above. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  REFORMATION   AND  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA. 

WE  have  now  reached  the  vicinity  of  two  events  for 
importance  seldom  surpassed  in  the  history  of  the  race, 
which  sprung  in  no  small  degree  from  common  causes 
though  so  unlike  in  character  at  many  points,  which  also 
occurred  so  closely  together  (1492  and  1517),  and  in  re- 
sults were  in  most  intimate  and  effectual  co-operation. 
Of  course  the  reference  is  to  the  Discovery  of  America, 
and  the  Protestant  Reformation.  For  centuries  the  tre- 
mendous import  of  these  achievements  as  touching  the 
spread  of  the  gospel  did  not  in  the  least  appear,  nor  even 
yet  by  many  is  their  value  fully  appreciated.  But  the 
recent  Columbus  celebrations  have  greatly  helped  us  to 
understand  what  his  immortal  deed  was  worth  to  hu- 
manity. And  the  meaning  will  be  disclosed,  if  we  en- 
deavor to  frame  a  reply  to  the  question,  What  if  his  un- 
quenchable faith  and  heroic  endeavor  had  been  omit- 
ted altogether  from  this  world's  occurrences  ?  Among 
other  things,  the  voyage  of  four  hundred  years  ago  was 
destined  to  uncover  half  the  globe  to  the  knowledge  of 
civilized  men,  and  so  to  double  the  possible  area  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth,  and  furnish  a  field  for  the 
advance  of  the  Lord's  hosts  beyond  conception  vaster 
and  more  varied  than  any  ever  dreamed  of  by  prophets 
and  apostles.  \Wien  Vasco  da  Gama,  and  Magellan, 
and  Cook,  and  a  score  of  others  had  completed  what 
Columbus  began,  «*the  world  "  no  longer  meant  merely 


REFORMATION   AND   DISCOVERY   OF  AMERICA.          33 

the  Mediterranean  Basin,  or  the  Roman  Empire,  the 
paltry  spaces  peopled  by  civilized  men.  Instead  of  only 
one  continent  entire,  and  a  portion  of  two  others,  six 
continents  were  included,  besides  such  land-masses  as 
New  Guinea,  New  Zealand,  Java,  Sumatra  and  Mada- 
gascar, and  lesser  islands  by  the  thousand.  Yes,  and 
the  immense  bulk  of  Africa  was  in  due  time  to  be  made 
accessible  from  the  coast  on  every  side  to  the  very 
center.  From  henceforth  to  the  end  of  time,  the  cir- 
cumference of  the  globe,  the  distance  from  the  equator 
to  the  poles,  were  to  be  the  limit  of  "  all  the  world," 
and  of  "  every  creature." 

Then  as  to  the  part  to  be  performed  by  the  Reforma- 
tion. Religion  pure  and  undefiled  was  to  be  restored, 
its  original  evangelizing  and  conquering  energy  was  to 
return,  together  with  material  auxiliaries  to  help,  in- 
creased an  hundred-fold.  And  hence  to  these  new 
lands,  and  to  the  old  ones  also,  a  faith  and  practise 
worth  possessing,  and  worth  imparting,  might  be  trans- 
ported, a  type  of  Christianity  which  wore,  at  least  in 
some  fair  measure,  the  celestial  image  of  its  Lord.  This 
same  reformed  church  was  to  hold  within  itself  the  seeds 
of  a  higher  general  intelligence  than  had  ever  yet  been 
seen,  of  freedom  also  both  civil  and  religious,  democracy 
included,  and  so  a  splendid  sphere  for  the  immeasurable 
gifts  and  graces  of  the  masses.  Especial  mention  must 
be  made  of  Bible  translation  among  the  regenerating 
forces  of  the  revolt  and  revival  set  on  foot  by  Wyclif, 
and  Huss,  and  Luther,  and  Calvin.  Hitherto  for  the 
most  part  the  word  of  God  had  been  kept  hidden  in  the 
dead  languages,  Hebrew,  and  Greek,  and  Latin,  and  so 
was  inaccessible  to  the  mass  of  Christians,  who  in  ad- 
dition were  unable  to  read.  But  to  make  a  bad  matter 


34  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

worse,  the  Scriptures  had  long  since  been  relegated  to 
the  rear  as  a  source  of  authority  and  of  spiritual  life, 
while  the  church,  the  sacraments,  the  priesthood,  had 
become  the  all  in  all  for  supplying  truth  and  motives  to 
right  action.  But  from  that  day  forward,  at  least  in 
every  Protestant  country,  the  Bible  was  to  be  found  in 
the  vernacular,  and  with  the  timely  aid  of  societies 
formed  for  the  express  purpose,  was  to  be  scattered 
broadcast,  and  to  find  a  place  in  every  home.  "The 
vernacular  Bible  became  a  missionary  book,  first  to 
Christendom  itself,  and  after  two  hundred  years  to  all 
mankind."  Nowadays  a  herald  of  the  cross  who  should 
fail  to  teach  his  converts  to  read  at  the  soonest,  and  to 
supply  them  with  the  New  Testament  and  the  Old, 
would  universally  be  held  to  misread  most  grievously  his 
duty  and  privilege,  and  to  omit  an  essential  element  of 
permanent  gospel  work.  Zeal  which  is  according  to 
knowledge  is  to  be  sought. 

In  their  larger  aspects  the  Discovery  and  the  Refor- 
mation together  included  the  astonishing  spread,  and 
colonization,  and  dominion,  of  the  virile  Anglo-Saxon 
race  and  speech — one  of  the  most  impressive  phenomena 
in  the  entire  range  of  historic  events.  The  ruling  re- 
ligious influences  of  the  future  were  to  be  not  Latin  and 
Catholic,  but  Teutonic  and  Protestant.  Great  Britain 
was  providentially  chosen  to  be  directly  and  indirectly 
by  far  the  mightiest  world-force  for  civilization  and 
Christianity.  In  the  New  World  were  first  to  be  tried, 
under  auspices  remarkably  favorable,  certain  novel, 
radical  and  most  momentous  experiments  in  civil  govern- 
ment and  ecclesiastical  order,  which  all  the  world  was  to 
watch  with  amazement  mingled  with  incredulity,  and 
then  sooner  or  later  to  begin  to  imitate.  Among  these 


REFORMATION   AND   DISCOVERY   OF   AMERICA,          35 

were  popular  government  combined  with  popular  edu- 
cation ;  an  intelligent  people  everywhere  in  authority, 
and  the  absolute  separation  of  church  and  state.  In  the 
midst  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  an  immense  area  had 
been  held  in  reserve  from  the  beginning,  almost  empty 
of  inhabitants,  and  waiting  to  be  possessed.  Here  the 
institutions  of  religion,  Christian  belief  and  practise, 
should  be  able  to  cast  off  the  trammels  of  a  defective 
past,  the  errors  and  abuses  inherited  from  the  ages  of 
darkness,  and  enter  upon  an  unprecedented  course  of 
development  toward  perfection.  A  Republic  should 
arise,  a  nation  blessed  with  numbers,  wealth,  and  ag- 
gressive evangelistic  zeal,  in  readiness  when  the  fulness 
of  times  should  arrive  to  become  one  of  the  foremost 
factors  of  Christendom  in  bearing  to  every  continent  and 
island  the  teaching  which  centers  in  Calvary.  And  to 
aid  not  only  in  the  redemption  of  the  New  World,  but 
of  the  Old  World  also.  Already  for  more  than  half  a 
century  the  striking  spectacle  has  been  looked  upon,  of 
missionaries  by  the  score  and  hundred  toiling  with  heroic 
faith  and  fervor  for  the  restoration  of  the  gospel  to  Bible 
lands,  Palestine,  Persia,  Egypt  and  the  rest,  and  sent  forth 
to  their  mission  from  a  country  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  globe,  a  country  of  whose  existence  Bible  saints  had 
never  dreamed !  How  altogether  wondrous  are  the 
ways  of  God  with  his  people  and  kingdom !  And 
finally,  the  triumphs  of  the  printing  press,  and  the  rail- 
road, and  the  steamship,  and  the  telegraph,  and  count- 
less other  mechanical  inventions  were  to  follow,  and  all 
were  to  unite  as  messengers  from  heaven  to  bear  the 
name  of  Jesus  to  the  earth's  remotest  bounds. 


CHAPTER  VL 

ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS. 

FROM  this  date  forward  evangelizing  effort  divides 
into  two  streams  as  to  dominant  ideas,  methods,  and  re- 
sults. For  the  Christian  Church  itself  by  a  terrible  con- 
vulsion had  been  rent  in  twain.  At  first  and  for  several 
generations,  for  reasons  most  cogent  which  will  be  given 
in  detail  further  on,  missionary  activity  and  gains  were 
almost  wholly  upon  the  side  of  the  Papacy.  It  is  enough 
at  present  to  recall  the  fact  that  during  a  long  period 
after  the  discovery  of  America  and  the  doubling  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  Cape  Horn,  with  the  conse- 
quent frequent  voyages  to  the  East  Indies  for  trade,  the 
entire  naval  power  and  commercial  activity  of  the  world 
were  in  the  hands  of  Catholic  Spain  and  Portugal,  and 
therefore  they  alone  came  into  personal  contact  with 
pagan  peoples.  But  besides,  the  outburst  of  zeal  for 
propagandizing  now  to  be  briefly  mentioned  came  to 
pass  as  a  result  of  a  sharp  reaction  within  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  against  the  rising  Reformation.  So 
much  territory  had  been  lost  to  the  Papacy  by  the  stun- 
ning spread  of  Protestant  ideas  in  central,  northern,  and 
western  Europe,  that  something  extraordinary  must  be 
done  at  once  to  secure  elsewhere  gains  to  match.  It 
was  the  enthusiasm  excited  in  this  counter-reformation 
which  helped  to  start  a  host  of  daring  and  venturesome 
souls  over  sea  and  land  to  bear  into  new  regions  the 
glorious  cross  of  Christ.  The  instruments  employed  to 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  MISSIONS.  3J 

seek  subjects  for  baptism  were  ihs  members  of  the  vari- 
ous religious  orders,  with  the  Benedictine,  Dominican, 
and  Franciscan  among  the  chief,  composed  of  monks 
without  family  ties  and  entanglements,  and  under  solemn 
vows  of  obedience  and  readiness  to  endure.  All  these 
were  pliant  tools  in  the  hands  of  the  church  leaders,  and 
to  them  was  now  added  (1540),  for  the  express  purpose  of 
exterminating  heretics,  and  toiling  for  the  "greater  glory 
of  God  "  (ad  major  em  gloriam  Dei),  the  redoubtable 
Society  of  Jesus,  a  body  military  and  merciless  in  its  dis- 
cipline, its  members  bound  to  be  absolutely  passive  under 
commands,  and  to  hold  themselves  ever  ready  to  set 
forth  at  an  hour's  warning  for  any  clime  under  the 
sun. 

And  though  we  can  not  but  deem  these  missionaries 
at  many  points  seriously  misguided,  and  feel  com- 
pelled to  condemn  not  a  few  of  their  doings,  neverthe- 
less certain  of  them  we  must  also  admire,  and  reverence, 
and  regard  as  brethren  in  the  Lord,  because  of  their  evi- 
dent sincerity,  their  limitless  courage,  devotion  and  self- 
denial,  their  almost  over-willingness  to  suffer  and  die. 
Francis  Parkman's  noble  volumes  on  France  and  Eng- 
land in  the  New  World  contain  just  panegyric  in  abund- 
ance in  giving  the  thrilling  story  of  men  like  Le  Jeune, 
and  Brebeuf,  and  Jogues,  and  Lalemant,  who  intrepidly 
assayed  to  subdue  to  the  meekness  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
the  Hurons  and  the  terrible  Iroquois,  in  the  effort  taking 
their  lives  in  their  hands  and  suffering  untold  tortures, 
with  exultation  even.  To  some,  as  Hennepin,  Mar- 
quette  and  Joliet,  we  also  owe  much  for  what  they 
achieved  as  explorers  in  the  Great  West.  Or  take 
Xavier  the  most  eminent  of  them  all,  indeed  ranking 
among  the  great  evangelizers  of  Christian  history.  His 


38  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

zeal  consumed  him,  and  his  labors  were  truly  apostolic. 
His  career  in  heathen  lands  was  but  brief,  and  yet  in 
those  ten  years  (1542-52)  spent  in  India  and  Japan  he 
is  said  to  have  baptized  not  less  than  1,000,000  con- 
verts. And  in  those  countries,  as  well  as  in  China,  the 
East  Indies  and  Africa,  his  successors  planted  numerous 
missions.  In  the  New  World  South  America  was  well 
subjected  to  the  Christian  faith,  that  is,  according  to  the 
peculiar  Roman  pattern.  Among  the  docile  natives  of 
Paraguay  was  planted  a  veritable  Jesuit's  paradise,  an 
ideal  state  of  society,  in  which  the  church  was  the  alpha 
and  omega,  and  to  an  extent  truly  fearful  and  wonder- 
ful supplied  to  the  faithful  reason,  judgment,  conscience, 
everything.  In  Mexico  and  California  some  substantial 
results  were  achieved,  while  at  Quebec  and  Montreal, 
with  the  exceedingly  paternal  civil  rule  of  Louis  XIV.  to 
co-operate,  in  the  way  of  rigid  discipline  and  blind  obe- 
dience there  was  not  much  left  to  be  desired. 

However,  for  some  reason,  nor  is  the  cause  far  to 
seek,  as  a  rule  the  work  of  these  Roman  Catholic  evan- 
gelizers,  though  so  extensive,  and  for  the  time  in  deceit- 
ful appearance  so  successful,  was  as  to  results  but  un- 
substantial and  fleeting.  Great  stress  was  always  laid 
upon  the  mere  ecclesiastical  externals  of  religion,  and 
unchristian  and  disastrous  compromises  with  heathenism 
were  not  uncommon.  Probably  the  most  scandalous 
case  occurred  in  connection  with  Robert  de  Nobili  in 
southern  India  (1606-30),  who  gave  himself  out  for  a 
Brahman  from  the  West,  suffered  none  but  men  of  high 
caste  to  approach  him,  forged  what  he  declared  to  be  a 
fifth  Veda,  etc.,  etc.;  so  that  even  Rome,  never 
squeamish  over  such  trifling  matters,  could  not  tolerate 
his  departures  from  the  gospel.  Then  further,  the  spirit 


ROMAN   CATHOLIC  MISSIONS.  39 

of  the  missionaries  was  too  lordly,  they  meddled  too 
much  with  political  affairs,  and  thus  stirred  up  against 
themselves  fear  and  deadly  hatred.  It  was  on  account 
of  such  blunders  and  sins  that  they  were  driven  out  of 
Japan  (1614)  and  China  (1618),  and  in  great  numbers 
their  poor  followers  were  tortured  and  put  to  death. 
After  a  steady  decline  it  had  come  to  pass  a  hundred 
years  ago  that  Catholic  missions,  in  foreign  lands 
where  they  had  once  been  prosperous,  were  in  many 
cases  almost  extinct. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PREPARATION  FOR  MODERN  MISSIONS. 

WHAT  in  the  meantime  were  the  Protestant  churches 
doing  to  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven?  The  Luthers,  and  the  Melanchthons,  the 
Calvins,  Zwingles,  Knoxes,  and  their  successors  ?  The 
humiliating  and  perplexing  answer  is,  Practically  noth- 
ing for  a  hundred  years.  And  for  two  hundred  years 
next  to  nothing.  All  the  names  worth  mentioning  of 
men  possessed  of  the  missionary  spirit,  praying  and  toil- 
ing to  publish  the  gospel  proclamation,  can  be  counted 
on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  Yes,  for  three  centuries 
the  attempts  were  but  shockingly  few,  and  the  fruits  but 
meager.  At  best  there  was  only  here  and  there  an  in- 
dividual soul  oppressed  with  profound  sorrow  and  sym- 
pathy for  the  pagan  world  lying  in  wickedness.  As  for 
the  Reformed  churches  as  a  whole,  they  did  nothing, 
and  they  cared  nothing.  Luther  had  no  look  to  spare 
for  lands  lying  beyond  the  pale  of  Christendom,  could 
only  lament  over  the  condition  of  the  benighted  Pa- 
pists, the  stiff-necked  and  stony-hearted  Jews,  and  oc- 
casionally of  the  dreadful  Turks,  who  made  their  pres- 
ence felt  in  those  days  by  resolutely  endeavoring  to 
push  their  dominion  northward  and  westward  in 
Europe.  As  for  Calvin,  he  could  comment  upon  Mat- 
thew and  discover  no  trace  of  duty  or  privilege  for  the 
disciples  of  Christ  as  touching  the  world's  conversion. 
Too  many  of  the  theologians  had  no  faith  in  efforts  to 

40 


PREPARATION   FOR  MODERN   MISSIONS.  4! 

win  the  heathen  to  the  gospel,  especially  if  these  were 
in  a  barbarous  state,  were  bitterly  opposed  to  such  at- 
tempts, even  regarding  them  fanatical  and  sinful.  And 
why  was  this  ?  How  shall  we  explain  the  phenomenon  ? 
We  might  sum  up  and  set  forth  the  reason  in  few 
words,  with  the  suggestion  that  the  world  was  not  ready, 
the  fulness  of  times  for  the  universal  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity had  not  come,  and  centuries  of  preparation  must 
first  intervene.  It  can  not  but  be  exceedingly  profitable 
to  review  the  history  of  the  last  four  hundred  years  with 
this  thought  in  mind,  and  take  note  of  the  manifold  and 
marvelous  overturnings  in  all  realms,  high  and  low, 
religious  and  secular,  all  of  which  have  worked  to- 
gether to  usher  in  this  glorious  century  of  world- wide 
missions. 

To  begin  with,  the  zeal  of  the  early  reformers,  as 
well  as  of  those  who  came  after  them,  was  not  evange- 
listic, but  polemic  instead,  was  anti-Catholic,  theologi- 
cal, ecclesiastical.  Such  was  the  fashion  that  had  come 
down  from  the  schoolmen.  But  further,  the  fact  is  well 
established  that,  at  least  in  the  case  of  an  important 
portion,  missionary  fervor  was  smothered  by  certain 
misreadings  of  scripture,  and  certain  eschatological  mis- 
conceptions. As  they  judged,  the  signs  of  the  times 
clearly  indicated  that,  not  only  was  the  world  "very 
evil,"  but  also,  "the  times  were  waxing  late."  The 
gospel  had  already  been  "  preached  in  all  the  world  for 
a  witness  unto  all  nations,"  had  already  reached  its  ex- 
treme limit  in  terrestrial  space,  and  the  end  of  all 
things  was  at  hand.  The  outlying  pagan  world  was  not 
to  be  converted,  but  was  about  to  be  destroyed.  Haste 
was  to  be  made  to  gather  out  the  elect. 

But  serious  hindrances  of  an  entirely  different  sort  are 


49  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

to  be  brought  to  mind.  It  happened  that  in  God's 
strange  providence  Protestantism  was  compelled  to  en- 
gage at  once  in  a  most  desperate  life-and-death  struggle 
with  Rome,  one  whose  fury  did  not  in  the  least  abate 
for  five  or  six  generations,  and  which  has  continued 
even  to  the  present  hour.  The  new  doctrine  and  life 
must  with  might  and  main  establish  a  right  to  existence, 
must  conquer  standing-ground,  must  first  define,  and 
then  enlarge  to  the  utmost  the  boundaries  of  the  Re- 
formation in  countries  already  Christian.  So  that  as 
yet  there  was  neither  much  leisure  nor  vitality  left  to 
expend  upon  the  vast  and  even  more  benighted  regioi.s 
beyond.  In  Babylon,  out  of  which  with  horror  they 
had  lately  fled,  the  reformers  found  a  foe  ever-present, 
wily,  unscrupulous,  and  most  determined  to  crush  the 
pestilent  Lutheran  heresy,  and  commonly  with  the  ruth- 
less civil  power  in  close  league  and  co-operation.  The 
horrid  enginery  of  the  Inquisition  was  steadily  at  work, 
and  the  Jesuits  were  plotting  night  and  day.  All  Ger- 
many was  in  perpetual  chaos,  social,  political,  and  re- 
ligious. Recall  the  unspeakable  desolations  attending 
the  almost  constant  "religious"  wars  of  those  dark 
days ;  how  the  Huguenots  found  no  rest  from  persecution, 
and  finally  were  slaughtered  by  the  wholesale,  impover- 
ished, imprisoned,  and  driven  from  France.  For  the 
better  part  of  a  century  little  Holland  bent  to  the  ut- 
most her  almost  miraculous  energies  to  save  herself 
from  utter  destruction  by  the  diabolical  schemes  of 
Phillip  II.  of  Spain.  And  as  for  England,  in  the  per- 
sons first  of  the  Lollards,  and  later  of  the  Puritans, 
those  who  would  have  none  of  Rome  suffered  manifold 
afflictions  from  Henry  VIII.,  Bloody  Mary,  Elizabeth, 
and  the  four  Stuarts,  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  in 


PREPARATION   FOR   MODERN   MISSIONS.  43 

all ;  nor  was  the  fearful  stress  finally  over  until  happy 
1688.  Therefore,  it  is  not  to  be  counted  in  the  least 
strange  that  the  dreary  and  bloody  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  witnessed  no  evangelizing  crusades  to 
speak  of  aimed  at  remote  Africa,  America,  and  the  Is- 
lands of  the  Sea. 

But  besides  this  warfare,  open  and  remorseless,  between 
Protestantism  and  the  Papacy,  there  was  another  conflict 
going  on  at  the  same  time  within  the  ranks  of  the  re- 
formed. The  theological  and  ecclesiastical  strifes  which 
began  from  the  Reformation,  esteemed  one  and  all  by 
the  combatants  "  wars  of  the  Lord,"  were  almost  as 
bitter,  as  exhausting,  and  even  more  interminable,  than 
the  fight  for  life  against  Rome.  And,  indeed,  the  task 
was  herculean,  full  of  difficulty,  demanded  the  utmost 
of  wisdom  and  skill  to  separate  Bible  truth  from  Rom- 
ish error,  with  which  for  more  than  a  millennium  it  had 
become  worse  and  worse  intermingled.  The  lamentable 
heresy  and  apostasy  extended  to  a  multitude  of  matters 
pertaining  to  both  belief  and  practise.  The  reformers 
of  necessity  resorted  to  the  Scriptures  anew  and  in- 
vestigated for  themselves.  The  human  mind  now  just 
set  free  from  age-long  and  galling  tyranny,  of  course 
was  altogether  unused  to  untrammelled  exercise,  and  so 
not  strangely  ran  riot  sometimes,  and  occasionally  went 
to  the  other  extreme  of  license,  lawlessness,  anarchy. 
Sects  sprang  up  by  the  score,  all  manner  of  hobbies  got 
upon  their  feet  and  performed  their  antics  before  high 
heaven.  While  to  beliefs  and  customs  some  would 
bring  the  least  possible  change,  others  would  reject 
these  to  the  utmost,  and  thus  be  as  unlike  as  possible  to 
the  infamous  harlot  of  the  Seven  Hills  !  But  the  most 
temperate  and  conservative  were  compelled  to  fashion 


44  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

fresh  creeds  and  forms  of  worship.  And,  should  eccle- 
siastical rule  be  monarchic  or  aristocratic  as  aforetime, 
or  democratic  rather,  or  at  what  point  between  ?  And 
the  confession,  should  it  be  of  the  Augsburg  pattern,  or 
of  the  Helvetic,  or  the  Gallic,  or  the  Belgic  ?  Which 
was  verily  nearest  to  God's  Word,  the  Heidelberg,  the 
Westminster,  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  or  the  Savoy  ? 
The  spirit  of  war  filled  the  air  in  all  regions  to  which 
the  Reformation  had  come,  in  all  realms  fighting,  at 
least  with  the  tongue  and  pen,  was  the  chief  business  ; 
and  hence  Luther  was  hot  against  Zwingle,  and  both 
against  Calvin,  and  all  three  could  by  no  means  tolerate 
in  the  least  the  wicked  errors  of  Arminius,  Servetus, 
and  the  rest.  In  England  for  long,  it  was  not  only 
Protestant  always  and  everywhere  against  Catholic,  but 
it  was  also  war  to  the  knife  between  the  Established 
Church  and  the  Presbyterians,  the  Puritans,  the  In- 
dependents, the  Baptists,  the  Quakers,  etc.  Nor,  in 
the  nature  of  things,  could  it  be  any  light  matter,  a 
short  and  simple  process,  to  escape  altogether  from  the 
intellectual  and  moral  night  of  the  Dark  Ages,  to  return 
fully  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus ;  or  for  Protestantism 
to  come  thoroughly  to  itself,  to  a  knowledge  of  its  sub- 
lime mission,  and  as  well  to  fashion  the  instrumentali- 
ties needed  to  accomplish  the  tremendous  task  assigned. 
Mention  must  also  be  made  of  the  essential  part  per- 
formed in  the  educating  and  spiritualizing  of  the  Prot- 
estant world  by  the  translations  of  the  Scriptures  into 
the  vernacular.  It  was  only  in  this  way  that  the  Word 
could  be  made  accessible  to  the  multitude,  and  so  be 
popularized,  and  be  able  to  operate  most  directly  and 
most  mightily  upon  the  largest  number.  For  a  thousand 
years  Christendom  had  been  poring  devoutly  over  the 


PREPARATION   FOR   MODERN    MISSIONS.  45 

lucubrations  of  the  fathers,  the  schoolmen,  the  monks, 
and  the  decrees  of  councils,  and  as  a  result  had  become 
filled  with  gross  misconceptions  concerning  God,  and 
man,  and  the  Church,  and  Christian  virtue,  and  the 
world  to  come.  But  now  a  return  was  to  be  made  to 
the  very  fountain-head  of  divine  knowledge.  Celestial 
wisdom  was  from  henceforth  to  flow  direct  to  the  mind 
and  heart  from  the  pens  of  psalmists,  prophets,  apostles, 
as  well  as  from  the  teachings  of  the  Son  of  God.  With 
eyes  thus  opened,  all  things  taught  and  practised  were 
to  be  proved,  the  false  and  foolish  were  to  be  rejected, 
while  the  pure  gospel  was  to  be  faithfully  applied  to 
character  and  life. 

A  further  obstacle,  as  good  as  insuperable,  was  found 
for  centuries  after  the  Reformation  in  the  fact  that 
everywhere  Church  and  State,  the  spiritual  therefore 
and  the  material,  were  closely  united,  and  so  long  had 
the  relation  existed  that  now  it  seemed  to  most  to  be  not 
only  eminently  proper,  but  also  necessary.  This  was 
another  portion  of  the  evil  inheritance  received  from 
Rome,  and  as  a  result  religion  had  come  to  be  largely  a 
political  affair  to  be  managed  in  cabinets  by  kings  and 
statesmen  and  generals,  by  them  to  be  fostered,  guided 
and  defended.  Force  was  in  common  use  to  advance 
orthodoxy,  to  punish  opinions  and  convictions  which  by 
theologians,  philosophers,  or  even  politicians,  were  ad- 
judged to  be  pestilential.  Such  a  wretched  caricature 
of  the  spirit  and  methods  of  the  New  Testament  as  re- 
sulted was  not  worthy  of  universal  diffusion.  Non  tali 
auxilio,  neque  istis  defensoribus  /  The  nations  that  sat 
in  the  darkness  of  paganism  must  needs  wait  until 
under  the  hand  of  God  this  unchristian  alliance,  this 
profane  mingling  of  the  things  of  God  with  the  things 


46  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

of  Caesar,  is  brought  to  an  end,  at  least  is  on  the  sure 
road  to  the  final  catastrophe. 

And  then  in  addition,  as  yet,  in  any  realm,  nothing 
of  importance  was  ever  undertaken  and  prosecuted  by 
the  individual  of  his  own  motion,  or  by  the  masses, 
from  an  impulse  abounding  within  ;  but  every  movement 
was  by  prescription,  by  the  authority  of  pope,  king, 
bishop,  and  was  under  the  direction  of  certain  orders, 
and  companies,  and  guilds.  The  blessed  day  of  vol- 
untary associations  was  not  yet — was  far  in  the  future. 
The  benighted  people  were  nobodies,  were  but  cattle  to 
be  driven,  or  clay  to  be  molded,  only  instruments  to 
be  played  upon  by  the  few  enjoying  the  divine  right  to 
originate,  and  shape,  and  manage.  As  we  shall  pres- 
ently see,  what  little  was  done  to  carry  the  gospel  abroad 
was  devised  wholly,  and  was  engineered  in  every  case, 
by  royalty  and  privileged  corporations.  In  those  days 
kings  were  nursing  fathers,  and  queens  were  nursing 
mothers,  in  a  way  that  was  full  of  evil.  All  which  was 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  glorious  days  of  the  apostles 
and  their  successors,  when  missionary  effort  was  mainly 
individual,  voluntary  and  spontaneous,  and  when  the 
entire  body  of  Christ  was  instinct  and  overflowing  with 
celestial  aggressive  force.  No  world-wide  progress  could 
be  made  until  such  ignoble  and  enfeebling  bonds  were 
somehow  broken,  and,  if  need  be,  through  violent  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  overturning,  and  the  rude  shock  of 
war.  The  English  Revolution  with  the  sublime  out- 
burst of  the  Puritan  spirit  must  precede,  the  American 
Revolution,  yes,  and  the  French  Revolution,  with  the 
terrible  throes  and  destructions  included  of  the  Reign 
of  Terror  and  the  Napoleonic  campaigns,  to  terminate 
a  great  host  of  old  abuses,  to  teach  priests  and  nobles  a 


PREPARATION   FOR  MODERN   MISSIONS.  47 

much  needed  but  unpalatable  lesson  in  humility  and 
modesty,  and  to  exalt  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
many.  And  above  all,  the  religious  world  was  waiting 
for  the  rise  of  a  great  people  beyond  the  Atlantic,  un- 
trammeled  by  tradition,  God-fearing,  intelligent,  each 
one  trained  to  think  and  act  for  himself,  with  democracy 
in  the  State  reacting  upon  the  Church,  a  people  loving 
liberty  better  than  life.  Then  at  length  the  gospel,  free 
as  at  the  first,  left  to  itself  to  do  its  appointed  work 
under  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Word,  and  with  reliance  upon  spiritual 
forces  alone,  could  enlarge  itself  indefinitely  on  every 
side,  and  spread  finally  around  the  whole  earth. 

There  was  yet  another  obstacle  to  the  re-beginning 
and  development  of  missions  which  was  well  nigh  pro- 
hibitory, and  was  resident  in  the  fact  that,  for  gener- 
ations after  the  Reformation,  Protestant  peoples  possessed 
no  point  of  actual  contact  with  the  heathen  world. 
Hence  the  existence  of  any  extended  and  deplorable 
moral  darkness  was  not  brought  home  to  their  senses, 
was  a  mere  matter  of  hearsay  and  untested  theory. 
Navigation  to  distant  parts,  commerce,  colonization, 
were  in  the  hands  of  such  servitors  of  Rome  as  Portugal 
and  Spain.  Because  Catholics  beheld  pagan  realms 
with  their  own  eyes  they  also  felt,  and  sent  out  mission- 
aries in  troops.  It  was  not  until  after  the  marked  de- 
cline of  those  two  powers  that  Protestant  Denmark, 
Holland  and  England  stepped  suddenly  forward  as 
rulers  of  the  sea.  And  the  first  Danish  missions  were 
planted  in  Danish  Greenland  and  at  Tranquebar.  In 
like  manner  the  first  Dutch  missionaries  touched  heathen 
soil  in  Dutch  Java,  Ceylon,  and  the  West  Indies.  Eliot 
also,  and  Brainerd  were  stirred  with  evangelizing  ardor 


48  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

only  toward  the  Indians  to  be  found  at  their  very  doors. 
And  where  did  Carey  and  Vanderkemp,  among  the  very 
first  of  Englishmen  to  carry  forth  the  glad  tidings,  make 
their  attempts  to  rescue  the  perishing,  but  upon  the 
Ganges  and  at  Cape  Town  whither  British  authority, 
and  British  settlers,  had  already  gone?  And  the  first 
three  British  societies  to  be  formed  with  missionary  aims 
had  no  look  other  than  towards  British  colonies  in  the 
New  World  and  elsewhere.  And  when  the  naval  and 
commercial  hegemony  passed  finally  into  Protestant 
hands,  it  was  the  Lord's  sure  token  that  the  pure  Gospel 
was  about  to  fly  abroad.  In  due  season  followed  other 
and  more  astounding  victories  for  the  rising  faith  of 
Luther,  and  chiefly  through  British  valor  and  aggressive 
enterprise.  It  was  nothing  less  than  one  of  the  greatest 
epochs  in  history,  especially  in  relation  to  all  English- 
speaking  people,  and  to  the  publishing  of  the  message 
to  mankind,  when  almost  in  the  same  year  Clive  con- 
quered at  Plassey  (1757),  and  Wolfe  at  Quebec  (1759), 
and  thus  eventually  by  the  hundred  million  Hindus 
were  brought  under  the  care  of  English  Christians, 
while  the  French  were  driven  from  this  continent  to 
make  ready  for  the  rise  of  a  "  Greater  Britain,"  which 
should  fairly  rival  the  mother  country  as  an  ardent 
evangelizer,  and  continually  provoke  her  to  good  works. 
One  more  step  of  a  somewhat  similar  character  re- 
mained to  be  taken,  nor  was  it  long  delayed.  Since  the 
generation  which  followed  Columbus  and  Magellan  and 
the  Cabots  and  Drake,  there  had  been  a  strange  and 
long-continued  apathy  with  regard  to  carrying  forward 
to  completion  the  discovery  of  unknown  regions.  Little 
progress  had  been  made  in  that  direction  save  by  a  few 
like  Barentz,  and  Tasman,  and  Bering,  until  Captain 


PREPARATION   FOR   MODERN    MISSIONS.  49 

Cook's  three  famous  voyages  (1769-79).  In  particular, 
he  turned  the  attention  of  the  civilized  world  to  such 
continental  land-masses  as  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and 
New  Guinea,  and  brought  to  light  in  the  hitherto  un- 
traversed  expanse  of  the  Pacific  the  South  Seas  of  a 
century  since,  islands  innumerable,  the  Society  group, 
the  Friendly,  the  Sandwich,  etc.  We  can  scarcely 
understand  the  prodigious  stir  that  was  made,  the  bound- 
less enthusiasm  that  was  kindled  by  his  achievements. 
The  explorations  of  our  Livingstone  and  Stanley  were 
received  coldly  by  comparison.  And  the  impulse  given 
to  missions  was  immediate  and  very  great.  Two  facts 
in  evidence  of  this  must  suffice ;  it  was  the  reading  of 
Cook's  narrative  that  first  set  Carey's  soul  on  fire  with 
longing  to  "  attempt  great  things  for  God  "  in  heathen 
lands,  and  his  original  plan  was  to  devote  himself  to 
toil  in  "  Otaheite  "  (Tahiti).  And  the  London  Society, 
at  whose  organization  such  a  remarkable  wave  of  re- 
ligious zeal  arose  and  spread  all  over  Britain  and  to  the 
Continent,  was  formed  expressly  to  carry  the  tidings  of 
salvation  to  the  South  Seas,  and  in  Tahiti  its  earliest  re- 
presentatives first  touched  land  and  opened  their  work. 

A  final  step  remained  in  preparing  the  way  for  suc- 
cessful missionary  undertakings.  A  mighty  and  wide- 
spread outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Most  High  had 
been  the  chief  desideratum.  From  various  causes  oper- 
ating in  conjunction  during  the  latter  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  extending  far  into  the  eighteenth,  a 
sad  and  dark  eclipse  of  faith  had  befallen  the  Reformed 
churches,  a  serious  decline  of  vital  piety,  a  lapse  into 
frigid  formalism  and  rank  rationalism.  The  only  zeal 
left  was  for  an  orthodoxy  which  was  stone  dead. 
"  Never  has  there  been  a  century  in  England  so  void  of 


50  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

faith  as  that  which  began  with  Queen  Anne  and  ended 
with  George  II.,  when  the  last  Puritan  was  buried  and 
the  first  Methodist  was  not  born."  The  Pietists  of 
Germany,  with  Francke  among  the  leaders,  were  pos- 
sessed of  the  true  evangelical  spirit.  In  1722,  when  the 
renewed  Moravian  Church  came  into  being,  cheering 
evidence  began  to  appear  that  divine  grace  and  mercy 
were  not  clean  gone  forever  from  His  apostate  people. 
And  not  much  later  began  to  descend  those  marvelous 
showers  of  heavenly  blessing,  through  the  fervid  and 
tireless  labors  of  the  Wesleys  (1738-91),  Whitefield,  and 
our  own  Edwards  (1734-49),  whereby  were  supplied  to 
many  thousands  a  love  fiery  and  vehement,  a  faith  hardy 
and  venturesome,  like  that  which  enkindled  and  uplifted 
the  church  in  the  pentecostal  age.  Without  this  almost  un- 
paralleled anointing  from  above  modern  missions  could 
never  have  begun  to  be,  but  now  it  was  possible  for  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  to  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 

Closely  akin  to  what  has  just  been  mentioned,  and  in 
great  part  as  a  result  of  the  operation  of  the  same  spir- 
itual force,  the  heart  of  Christendom  began  to  be  mys- 
teriously touched  and  melted,  and  filled  with  compas- 
sion for  the  millions  who  were  suffering  and  dying — 
that  is,  the  spirit  of  humanity,  of  philanthropy,  the 
Good  Samaritan,  which  is  inherent  in  the  gospel,  was 
everywhere  active  in  the  early  days,  but  which  had  long 
since  been  almost  quenched,  was  revived.  Even  Chris- 
tian souls  had  been  for  ages  in  an  unfeeling  frame,  re- 
flecting thus  the  old  pagan  and  barbarous  times.  The 
laws  were  cruel  and  savage.  Sorrow  and  woe  and  pain 
found  slight  sympathy.  When  the  general  case  was  so 
forlorn,  and  only  the  few  were  intelligent  and  free,  little 


PREPARATION   FOR   MODERN   MISSIONS.  5! 

heed  was  paid  to  the  misery  of  others,  and  especially  if 
of  a  different  nation,  out  of  sight,  at  a  distance.  But  a 
marked  change  in  this  regard  was  at  the  door.  John 
Howard  had  started  on  his  journeys  to  abolish  the 
grievous  wrongs  inflicted  upon  prisoners ;  Wilberforce 
and  Clarkson  were  lifting  their  voices  in  denunciation  of 
the  sin  of  slavery ;  and  Raikes  had  opened  his  first  rag- 
ged school.  And  this  was  but  the  feeble  beginning  of  an 
era  of  moral  reforms  which  constitute  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  features  of  the  passing  century,  as  well  as 
one  of  its  best  claims  to  be  remembered  with  gratitude 
in  centuries  to  come.  Our  missions  are  to  be  regarded 
as  in  no  small  degree  the  outcome  of  the  philanthropy 
to  which  the  gospel  has  given  life  and  vigor. 

This  brief  glance  at  the  Protestant  Christian  world, 
extending  from  near  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury to  near  the  end  of  the  eighteenth,  is  sufficient 
abundantly  to  demonstrate  that  the  long  failure  of  the 
Lord's  host  to  go  up  and  possess  the  whole  world  for 
Christ,  though  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  to  their  shame 
and  their  sin,  and  because  of  their  indifference  and  un- 
belief, was  also,  in  yet  greater  measure,  their  misfortune, 
the  result  of  evil  environments  for  which  they  were  not 
responsible,  and  which  they  were  compelled  to  endure. 
Moreover,  those  same  tempestuous  and  most  trying  years 
were  not  by  any  means  wholly  wasted,  but  on  the  con- 
trary were  an  all-important  and  indispensable  period  of 
extensive  seed-sowing  in  preparation  for  the  magnificent 
missionary  harvest  to  follow.  At  length  the  time  was 
fully  ripe.  Rome  was  now  so  badly  battered  that  no 
longer  need  any  live  in  mortal  fear,  lest  either  by  guile 
or  open  assault  she  should  recapture  lost  territory,  and 
therefore  Protestant  Christianity  could  well  afford  to  face 


52  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

some  other  way  than  towards  the  Tiber.  Freedom  both 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  had  extensively  become  the  sure 
inheritance  of  the  masses ;  and  also  to  them  the  public 
school  and  the  printing-press  were  fast  bringing  intelli- 
gence to  fit  them  for  evangelistic  thought  and  action. 
There  were  no  more  lands  to  be  discovered,  and  the  rail- 
road and  the  steamship  were  soon  to  bring  near,  and 
make  easily  accessible,  the  very  ends  of  the  earth.  And 
finally,  in  the  nick  of  time,  a  few  at  least,  in  loving  obe- 
dience to  the  last  command  of  their  risen  and  ascended 
Lord,  were  ready  and  eager  to  go  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature. 


CHAPTER 

PROTESTANT    MISSIONS  BEFORE  CAREY. 

THOUGH  so  little  was  accomplished,  or  even  under- 
taken, by  Protestant  Christians  during  the  first  three 
centuries  after  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation,  and 
that  period  was  one  mainly  of  preparation,  for  the  re- 
moval of  obstacles,  for  laying  foundations  deep  and 
broad,  yet  after  all,  a  few  attempts  were  actually  made, 
some  fruits  were  gathered  in,  souls  redeemed  in  pagan 
lands ;  and  best  of  all,  some  undying  names  appear  in  the 
record  of  men  who  for  earnestness,  self-sacrifice  and 
consecrated  zeal  have  never  been  surpassed,  and  have 
been  anew  to  each  generation  since  the  source  of  aston- 
ishing inspiration  and  evangelistic  ardor.  But  be  it  re- 
membered that  the  principal  value  of  those  three  hun- 
dred years  is  found  in  the  fact  that  during  their  course, 
and  largely  in  non-religious  realms,  a  continual  process 
was  going  on  of  exalting  valleys,  making  low  mountains 
and  hills,  making  crooked  places  straight  and  rough 
places  plain  to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord,  and  make 
straight  in  the  desert  a  highway  for  our  God. 

The  narrative  of  what  was  attempted  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  mankind  is  so  brief  as  to  be  humiliating  and 
painful.  Just  before  his  death,  in  1536,  Erasmus  pub- 
lished a  work  on  the  Art  of  Preaching,  which  has  been 
termed  a  "  missionary  treatise,"  which  in  passages  reads 
"  like  a  modern  missionary  address,  and  might  be  placed 
side  by  side  with  the  appeals  of  Carey,  Duff,  and  Liv- 

53 


54  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

ingstone."  But  it  fell  upon  deaf  ears,  and  hearts  with- 
out feeling.  In  1556,  at  the  request  of  the  great  Prot- 
estant Admiral  Coligny,  Calvin  despatched  fourteen 
pious  men,  of  whom  only  two  were  clergymen,  to  Brazil. 
But  they  went  for  the  sake  of  a  proposed  colony  rather 
than  as  heralds  of  good  news  to  the  heathen,  and  besides, 
the  "mission"  soon  met  with  overwhelming  disaster. 
And  it  was  not  in  the  least  the  churches  sending  their 
representatives,  but  the  statesman  making  request,  and 
the  theologian  choosing  and  bidding  God-speed.  In 
1559,  Gustavus — the  king,  and  not  the  Swedish  church, 
or  the  Swedish  Christians — was  moved  to  send  the  gos- 
pel to  the  pagan  Lapps,  and  his  successors  carried  on 
what  he  had  begun.  Churches  were  built,  schools  were 
opened,  and  in  later  years  religious  books  were  published 
in  the  vernacular,  but  only  the  slightest  spiritual  results 
ensued.  And  the  reason  becomes  evident  when  we  learn 
that  all  services  were  held  in  Swedish,  which  the  people 
did  not  understand,  and  that  in  the  winter  months  by 
royal  edict  the  population  was  gathered  to  pay  tribute 
and  to  be  indoctrinated  into  the  faith.  For  such  were 
the  methods  in  those  days,  when  the  Church  was  scarcely 
more  than  a  department  of  the  State.  Within  the  nar- 
row limits  of  this  paragraph  is  contained  the  substance 
of  the  entire  narrative  of  what  was  done  in  the  sixteenth 
century  for  missions. 

And  the  record  of  the  seventeenth  century  is  not 
much  more  creditable,  except  that  in  it  we  discern  the 
promise,  the  potency,  and  the  preparation  for  vastly 
brighter  days  to  come.  But  even  yet,  what  we  find  of 
good  omens  is  for  the  most  part  upon  the  secular  side 
of  human  affairs.  Tremendous  revolutions  both  politi- 
cal and  commercial  were  at  hand,  which  were  destined 


PROTESTANT   MISSIONS   BEFORE   CAREY.  55 

in  due  season  to  open  wide  the  door  for  the  introduction 
of  a  pure  gospel  into  remotest  continents  and  islands. 
As  we  have  already  seen,  for  a  full  hundred  years  after 
the  stunning  achievements  of  Columbus  and  Vasco  da 
Gama  and  Magellan,  Spain  and  Portugal,  both  devoted 
to  the  Papacy,  had  enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  discovery, 
and  trade,  and  colonization,  in  all  the  vast  new-found 
regions.  No  other  nation  had  been  sufficiently  venture- 
some to  presume  to  trespass,  scarcely  even  to  land  for 
purposes  of  traffic,  upon  the  shores  either  of  the  East 
Indies,  or  of  the  New  World.  N  So  that  to  the  very 
wisest  of  that  day,  or  of  any  generation  for  centuries 
after,  if  he  had  canvassed  the  question  it  must  have 
seemed  that  providence  designed  Protestants  to  have 
no  part  or  lot  in  the  world  outside  of  Europe.  But 
at  length  and  almost  the  same  time,  three  Protestant 
nations  began  to  bestir  themselves,  to  build  navies  and 
merchant  ships,  and  to  voyage  whithersoever  they 
would,  north,  south,  east,  west,  in  spite  of  papal  bull,  or 
prohibition  from  the  Iberian  peninsula.  And  the  change 
which  resulted  has  continued  to  this  day,  and  with  re- 
sults steadily  increasing  constitutes  one  of  the  most 
striking  of  historical  phenomena ;  judged  by  its  effects 
being  greater  far  than  the  famous  sending  of  Solomon's 
ships  to  Ophir  or  the  voyages  and  settlements  of  the 
Phenicians,  and  in  its  relation  to  the  universal  spread  of 
the  gospel  every  way  worthy  to  be  classed  with  Alex- 
ander's conquests  in  remotest  Persia  and  India,  and  the 
countless  campaigns  of  the  Roman  legions.  The  earlier 
outcome  was  only  commercial,  political,  military ;  su- 
preme power  simply  passed  from  Roman  Catholic  to 
Protestant  hands.  But  the  deep  divine  meaning  was 
nothing  less  than  the  world-wide  spread  of  the  funda- 


56  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

mental  ideas  and  principles  of  the  Reformation,  and 
later  and  more  especially,  the  world-wide  and  un- 
paralled  dominion  of  God's  most  highly  honored  mis- 
sionary agency,  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

The  Dutch  were  the  first  to  poach  without  conscience 
upon  the  Portuguese  preserves  in  southern  Asia.  They 
had  maintained  their  independence  against  the  utmost 
that  Philip  of  Spain  could  do,  and  he  having  united 
in  his  own  person  the  sovereignty  of  the  two  peoples 
beyond  the  Pyrenees,  and  in  order  to  punish  these 
doughty  Netherlanders  whom  he  could  not  conquer, 
forbade  their  ships  to  enter  the  port  of  Lisbon,  the 
both  entrepot  and  depot  for  the  spices  and  all  other 
precious  products  of  the  East  and  West.  Now  the 
Hollanders  had  long  been  the  ocean  carriers  for  all 
Europe,  and  thus  were  threatened  with  commercial  ruin 
utter,  and  without  remedy.  Nor,  driven  to  such  desper- 
ate straits,  were  they  long  in  coming  to  the  sensible  con- 
clusion that  if  not  allowed  to  purchase  what  commodities 
they  wanted  nearer  home,  they  would  procure  them  in 
their  native  clime,  and  also  at  first  hand.  The  annihila- 
tion of  the  Spanish  Armada  is  1588  supplied  the  golden 
opportunity.  After  three  unsuccessful  attempts  to  find  a 
north-east  passage  by  way  of  Nova  Zembla  and  Bering 
Straits,  in  1596,  just  when  Van  Linschoten,  after  fifteen 
years'  acquaintance  with  the  Portuguese  and  their  com- 
merce in  Lisbon  and  the  East,  had  published  a  work  full 
of  information,  containing  maps  and  charts,  giving 
routes,  laying  down  currents,  rocks,  harbors,  etc.;  the 
Houtman  brothers  doubled  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and 
a  few  months  later  appeared  in  Sumatra  waters.  In  1602 
the  Dutch  East  India  Company  was  organized  under  a 
charter  which  specified  as  one  of  the  objects  to  be 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS  BEFORE  CAREY.  57 

iought  the  carrying  of  the  Reformed  faith  to  the 
heathen.  In  1605  Van  der  Hagen,  while  en  route  for 
the  Spice  Islands,  made  a  lodgment  upon  the  Malabar 
Coast  in  the  vicinity  of  Goa,  the  Portuguese  head- 
quarters in  India,  and  then  sailing  on  to  Amboyna, 
one  of  the  Moluccas,  captured  it.  Now  followed  almost 
a  century  of  Dutch  conquest.  Batavia  was  founded  in 
1619.  By  1635  Formosa  had  become  subject  to  the 
States,  Malacca  by  1640,  while  in  1651  fell  the  last 
Portuguese  stronghold  in  Ceylon,  and  by  1664  the  en- 
tire Malabar  Coast  had  passed  into  Dutch  hands.  Also 
in  1650  a  colony  had  been  planted  at  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  as  a  sort  of  half-way  house  on  the  road  to  the 
East. 

But  we  search  almost  in  vain  for  any  display  of  mis- 
sionary zeal  in  these  movements.  The  Company  was 
purely  commercial  and  political  in  its  designs,  and  its 
desires  were  fastened  on  something  other  than  evangel- 
ists and  converts.  To  be  sure,  ministers  in  considerable 
numbers  were  sent  out,  especially  in  the  earlier  years, 
and  some  of  them  were  truly  godly  men,  in  earnest  to  do 
good.  The  gospel  was  preached  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
factories,  the  Scriptures  were  translated  into  Malay  and 
Cingalese,  and  printed  at  the  expense  of  the  Company. 
Pagan  temples  were  closed,  and  Catholic  churches  were 
turned  to  Protestant  uses,  while  an  end  was  put  to  the 
celebration  of  both  Buddhist  and  Romish  rites.  But, 
let  what  occurred  in  Ceylon  and  Java  stand  for  the 
spirit  and  methods  of  Dutch  evangelization,  which  at 
length  prevailed.  And  note  the  subordination  of  the 
religious  to  the  political.  It  was  given  out  by  the 
highest  civil  authority  that  no  favors  could  be  expected 
from  the  government  by  any  who  did  not  accept  the 


58  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

Helvetic  Confession  and  receive  baptism.  However,  as 
an  easy  preparation,  it  was  only  required  that  the  can- 
didate should  master  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  in  addition,  undertake  to  pray  morn- 
ing and  evening,  and  say  grace  before  and  after  meals  ! 
And  behold,  eager  crowds  pressed  into  the  churches. 
By  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  there  were  300,- 
ooo  "Christians"  in  Ceylon,  which  number  had  in- 
creased to  425,000  in  1725.  In  Java  100,000  received 
baptism  under  similar  impulses  and  upon  similar  terms, 
and  both  process  and  results  were  of  the  same  order  in 
Formosa,  Celebes,  the  Moluccas,  etc.  Of  course  the 
gains  to  Christianity  were  but  slightly,  if  any,  beyond 
those  which  followed  from  the  missionary  labors  of  the 
Jesuits  in  the  same  regions.  But  the  best  outcome  was 
to  appear  later.  The  Dutch  conquests  in  the  East  made 
vast  populations  known  to  the  Protestant  world,  and 
eventually  made  them  accessible  to  the  heralds  of  a  pure 
faith.  The  Hollanders  were  explorers  and  pioneers. 
Nor  in  India  and  the  Spice  Islands  alone,  but  in  the 
New  World  as  well.  For  the  Dutch  West  India  Conv 
pany  was  organized  in  1607 ;  two  years  later  Hudson 
made  his  advent  into  New  York  harbor,  and  ascended 
the  river  which  bears  his  name ;  and  about  the  same 
time  settlements  were  made  in  Surinam  and  Brazil, 
where,  at  least  in  some  slight  measure,  gospel  work  was 
done. 

Protestant  Denmark  was  performing  in  the  meantime 
her  portion  of  the  work  of  preparation,  which  though 
but  insignificant  in  appearance  at  the  time,  and  its  re- 
lation to  missions  long  entirely  hidden,  may  not  im- 
properly be  esteemed  of  great  value,  and  in  a  sense  even 
indispensable.  In  1616  certain  Danish  traders  made 


PROTESTANT   MISSIONS   BEFORE  CAREY.  59 

their  advent  upon  the  eastern  coast  of  India,  and  in  the 
same  memorable  year,  building  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  how  vastly  better  than  they  knew,  or  desired, 
founded  factories  at  both  Tranquebar  and  Serampore. 
Such  was  the  Lord's  mysterious  way  of  setting  forces  in 
operation  which,  ninety  years  later,  should  locate  in  the 
one  the  first  Protestant  mission  properly  so  called,  and 
one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  years  later  should 
provide  for  the  first  band  of  English-speaking  mis- 
sionaries in  the  other  a  safe  abiding  place,  where  in 
spite  of  the  utmost  that  the  British  East  India  Company 
could  do,  they  were  able  to  maintain  themselves,  and  to 
carry  on  their  magnificent  work. 

But  within  this  same  period  English  sailors  also  had 
learned  the  same  watery  road  to  the  East,  and  after  long 
and  resolutely  trying  in  vain  to  discover  a  north-west 
passage  to  Asia,  at  length  turned  southward  and  followed 
the  courses  struck  out  by  Gama  and  Magellan.  In 
I577-9»  Drake  made  the  circuit  of  the  globe  via  Cape 
Horn,  traversing  the  East  Indian  Archipelago  and  the 
Indian  Ocean ;  Stephens  penetrated  to  the  region  of  the 
Spice  Islands  in  1579-82  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  and  Cavendish  followed  in  1586.  The  East 
India  Company  was  formed  1598-1603,  wider  a  charter 
granted  by  William  III.,  and  at  once  sent  out  the  first 
of  a  long  succession  of  fleets  to  trade  and  fight,  as  well 
as  to  found  factories  and  colonies.  Nearly  a  century 
followed  of  war  with  the  Dutch  for  a  share  of  the 
islands,  and  of  the  traffic  in  cloves,  cinnamon,  pepper, 
etc.  In  1614  at  Surat  the  first  factory  was  opened  in 
India,  in  1630  the  site  of  Madras  was  occupied,  in 
1642  the  Hugli  was  entered  and  the  seed  was  planted 
out  of  which  Calcutta  grew,  while  in  1661  Bombay  was 


60  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

transferred  from  the  Portuguese  to  the  English.  But  no 
prophet  of  the  time  was  gifted  with  foresight  sufficient  to 
perceive  in  the  least  the  importance  of  the  doings  of 
these  selfish,  and  mercenary,  and  often  conscienceless 
traders  as  touching  the  religious  future  of  the  many 
millions  of  this  continental  peninsula.  And  from  near 
the  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century  until  near  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth,  English  Christians  were  stone- 
blind  to  their  duty  and  privilege,  and  did  nothing 
whatsoever  for  the  introduction  of  the  gospel  into 
southern  Asia,  and  this,  though  the  charter  of  their  great 
Company  expressly  required  that  a  plentiful  supply  of 
chaplains  should  be  maintained  at  all  its  stations,  and  it 
was  made  obligatory  upon  all  these  to  learn  the  language 
of  the  natives  in  their  vicinity,  and  to  give  religious  in- 
struction to  such  of  them  as  were  in  the  company's 
employ. 

Our  point  of  vision  passes  now  to  the  New  World 
where  other  momentous  beginnings  are  in  progress  at  the 
same  time,  and  though  belonging  to  the  other  side  of  the 
globe,  are  yet  in  closest  connection  with  those  we  have 
just  been  considering.  In  the  history  of  modern  mis- 
sions Jamestown  and  Plymouth  will  always  be  words  to 
conjure  with,  and  the  dates  1607  and  1620  will  take  rank 
with  the  few  that  mark  the  opening  of  eras.  In  all  the 
early  voyages  to  America  under  the  lead  of  Raleigh  and 
others,  the  conversion  of  the  aborigines  received  no  in- 
considerable mention.  Upon  the  seal  of  Massachusetts 
colony  was  represented  an  Indian  with  extended  arms, 
and  the  legend  "  'Come  over  and  help  us."  As  early  as 
1636  Plymouth  took  legislative  action  looking  to  the 
evangelization  of  the  pagans  dwelling  hard  by.  In  1644 
the  General  Coui.t  at  Boston  ordered  the  county  courts 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS  BEFORE  CAREY.  6l 

«'  to  have  the  resident  Indians  instructed  in  the  knowl- 
edge and  worship  of  God,"  and  thus  became  in  the 
phrase  of  a  competent  historian  "the  first  missionary 
society  of  Protestant  Christendom."  But  as  yet  it  was 
not  churches,  or  individual  Christians,  that  moved  in 
this  great  matter,  but  corporations,  and  courts,  and  leg- 
islatures, instead.  In  1642  the  May  hews  began  their 
apostolic  labors  upon  Martha's  Vineyard  and  the  neigh- 
boring islands,  to  be  continued  in  the  same  family  for 
five  successive  generations,  and  in  1646  John  Eliot 
preached  his  first  sermon  to  the  red  men  in  their  own 
tongue,  while  by  1663  he  had  completed  his  Indian 
Bible.  The  labors  of  this  gifted  and  godly  man  continued 
until  the  close  of  his  life  in  1690.  By  the  end  of  the 
century  several  thousands  had  become  Christian  in  name, 
and  thirty  churches  had  been  gathered.  It  was  to  assist 
the  New  England  colonists  in  these  labors  of  love  that 
twelve  ministers  petitioned  Parliament,  and  as  a  result  in 
1649  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
New  England  was  chartered,  and  for  years  substantial 
financial  succor  was  bestowed.  There  were  a  few  En- 
glishmen of  eminence  in  that  generation  of  the  spirit 
and  deeds  of  Robert  Boyle,  who  for  thirty  years  was  the 
president  of  that  society,  and  contributed  ^£300  to  1 J 
funds,  nearly  ^1,000  for  various  translations  of  the 
Bible,  and  at  his  death  left  ^5,400  "  for  the  propagation 
of  Christianity  in  infidel  and  unenlightened  nations." 
It  was  in  this  period,  too,  that  Cromwell  devised  his 
scheme,  which  though  futile  was  yet  grand,  for  uniting 
all  Protestant  peoples  in  an  effort  to  evangelize  the  whole 
race,  parcelling  out  among  them  the  entire  heathen  and 
Mohammedan  world. 
Two  or  three  almost  fruitless  attempts  on  the  part  of 


62  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

individuals  will  complete  the  missionary  history  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  In  one  of  the  earlier  decades,  in- 
spired by  Grotius,  seven  young  men  of  Lubeck  were 
moved  to  endeavor  to  rekindle  the  light  of  New  Testa- 
ment truth  in  the  midst  of  the  corrupt  Oriental  churches. 
One  set  forth  for  Jerusalem,  but  lost  his  faith  while  upon 
the  journey ;  another  pushed  his  way  into  Turkey  and 
seems  to  have  met  death  by  violence ;  while  a  third, 
Peter  Heyling,  after  several  failures,  is  heard  of  in  Abys- 
sinia in  1634,  and  for  years  lifted  up  his  voice  in  wit- 
nessing for  Christ.  Then  in  1664  Von  Welz,  an  Austrian 
baron  of  Ratisbon,  his  heart  burning  within  him,  pub- 
lished two  impassioned  pamphlets  in  which  he  called 
upon  Christians  to  rouse  themselves  and  make  haste  to 
seek  and  save  the  lost  of  the  race,  and  proposed  the 
formation  for  the  purpose  of  a  Jesus-Society.  But  for 
his  longings  he  found  no  sympathy.  His  was  a  voice 
crying  in  the  wilderness  which  found  none  to  listen. 
The  mass  of  the  Lutheran  Church  regarded  his  schemes 
as  preposterous,  so  far  as  they  received  any  attention. 
One  so  learned  and  pious  as  Ursinus  "  distinctly  stigma- 
tizes his  appeal  as  a  dream,  rebukes  its  self-willed  piety, 
its  hypocrisy,  its  Anabaptist  and  Quaker  spirit,  and  dep- 
recates the  proposed  Jesus- Association  in  these  words : 
Protect  us  from  it,  dear  Lord  God  !  "  This  great  theo- 
logian concludes  that  the  gospel  is  not  meant  for  barbar- 
ians like  Greenlanders,  Tatars  and  Cannibals.  "The 
holy  things  of  God  are  not  to  be  cast  before  such  dogs 
and  swine."  Exciting  thus  only  opposition  and  ridicule 
in  Germany,  at  length  Von  Welz  took  his  departure  for 
Holland,  gave  up  his  title  to  nobility,  bestowed  some 
$9,000  upon  the  object  so  dear  to  his  heart,  was  ordained, 
and  sailed  for  Surinam,  where  he  soon  died. 


PROTESTANT   MISSIONS   BEFORE   CAREY.  63 

Thus  ends  the  second  century  of  Protestant  history. 
The  missionary  dawn  is  still  almost  a  hundred  years 
away  in  the  future,  but  we  have  now  reached  the  vicinity 
of  certain  cheering  tokens  that  the  morning  will  not  fail 
to  appear.  What  must  be  regarded  as  distinctly  a  new 
stage  in  the  development  of  missionary  activity  comes 
into  view  in  the  first  years  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
with  Denmark  and  the  Lutherans  as  the  actors.  And 
further,  as  the  fashion  was,  with  the  king  and  his  court 
to  lead.  The  fact  seems  to  be  established  that  it  was  by 
his  chaplain  Lutkens  that  Frederick  IV.  was  stirred  up 
to  send  forth  the  message  of  salvation  to  the  various  dis- 
tant dependencies  of  the  Crown.  Searching  about  earn- 
estly for  suitable  persons  to  despatch  on  this  gospel  er- 
rand, not  one  could  be  found  within  the  bounds  of  the 
kingdom,  and  therefore  recourse  was  had  to  those  almost 
solitary  centers  of  evangelical  fervor,  Halle  and  Berlin, 
and  to  the  renowned  pietists,  Francke  and  Spener,  so 
much  spoken  against  by  the  formalists  and  rationalists  of 
their  time.  At  length  two  young  men  were  chosen  and 
found  ready  to  go  to  the  far  off  regions  of  darkness. 
But  great  opposition  was  encountered  in  Germany,  on  the 
ground  that  missions  to  the  heathen  were  neither  neces- 
sary nor  proper ;  and  so  difficult  was  it  found  to  estab- 
lish their  orthodoxy  before  a  court  of  Danish  theolo. 
gians,  that  ordination  was  secured  to  the  candidates  only 
at  the  imperative  command  of  the  king.  But  finally, 
and  after  a  tempestuous  voyage  of  forty  weeks,  in  July 
of  1706,  these  pioneers  for  the  kingdom  among  the 
teeming  millions  of  India,  Ziegenbalg  and  Plutschau, 
stepped  on  shore  at  Tranquebar,  a  Danish  settlement  on 
the  south-east  coast,  and  began  their  arduous  labors.  In- 
credible difficulties  were  in  waiting,  and  not  only  from 


64  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

the  idol-worshipping  natives,  but  even  more  from  godless 
Europeans,  and  from  the  unbelieving  and  jealous  Danish 
governor,  who  set  himself  to  put  every  possible  hindrance 
in  their  way,  and  went  so  far  as  to  cast  Ziegenbalg  into 
prison,  where  he  lay  for  four  months  in  confinement, 
and  forbidden  the  use  of  pen  and  paper.  But  in  spite 
of  all  they  held  on,  mastered  the  language,  translated 
the  Scriptures  and  other  books,  opened  schools  and 
preached  here  and  there  without  ceasing.  It  is  estimated 
that  before  the  end  of  the  century  not  less  than  50,000 
converts  had  been  made.  The  peculiar  glory  of  this 
mission  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  Protestant  un- 
dertaking in  India,  or  in  any  remote  heathen  country, 
and  also  that  for  almost  a  half-century  (1750-98)  it 
was  blessed  with  the  presence  and  magnificent  services 
of  Schwartz,  whose  name  belongs  among  the  first  half- 
score  of  eminent  apostles  to  the  pagan  world. 

In  1714  this  same  Danish  King  Frederick  established 
a  college  of  missions,  and  two  years  later  under  his  aus- 
pices the  gospel  was  carried  to  Lapland.  Just  at  this 
time  it  was  also  that  in  northern  Norway  the  soul  of 
Hans  Egede  was  pondering  a  mighty  question  night  and 
day.  For  thirteen  years  the  Macedonian  cry  had 
sounded  in  his  ears ;  he  had  read  of  a  colony  which 
centuries  since  had  been  planted  in  Greenland,  but  from 
which  no  message  for  centuries  had  been  received ;  he 
longed  to  undertake  something  for  the  relief  of  his 
countrymen  imprisoned  in  that  land  of  ice,  and  sought 
eagerly  in  every  direction  for  means  to  betake  himself 
thither.  He  petitioned  Frederick  for  aid,  and  in  1717 
resigned  his  pastorate  in  Waagen,  and  made  his  way  to 
Copenhagen.  Finally  by  sheer  persistence,  having  con- 
quered every  obstacle,  he  set  forth  in  1721  to  enter  upon 


PROTESTANT   MISSIONS   BEFORE  CAREY.  65 

a  fifteen  years'  course  of  disappointment,  and  of  suffer- 
ing both  physical  and  spiritual,  and  with  but  the  slight- 
est measures  of  success  attending.  No  settlers  were 
found,  but  only  a  handful  of  sordid  and  most  degraded 
Eskimo.  With  only  his  heroic  wife  to  lend  comfort 
and  hope,  with  storm  and  frost,  famine  and  pestilence, 
to  endure,  he  held  resolutely  on  until  other  missionaries 
came,  and  he  was  fairly  compelled  to  retire. 

And  now  the  Christian  world  was  to  behold  yet  an- 
other step  forward  in  the  sublime  march  of  missionary 
progress.  And  this  likewise  was  closely  connected  with 
Denmark,  King  Frederick,  and  the  pietist  Francke. 
The  renewed  Moravian  Church  had  been  formed  only 
ten  years,  and  numbered  but  some  six  hundred  souls, 
when  Zinzendorf,  who  had  felt  profoundly  the  evangel- 
ical movement  which  centered  in  Halle,  paid  a  visit  to 
Copenhagen  at  the  coronation  of  Christian  VI.  While 
there  he  heard  that  the  settlements  which  since  Egede 
went  out  had  been  maintained  in  Greenland,  being 
financially  unprofitable,  were  to  be  broken  up  and  the 
missionaries  called  home  (again  we  see  religion  placed 
at  the  mercy  of  political  and  financial  considerations), 
and  he  also  saw  two  Eskimo  converts  whom  Egede 
had  baptized.  Moreover  it  came  to  his  knowledge  that 
the  sister  of  a  negro  whom  he  met  was  a  slave  in  St. 
Thomas,  and  with  other  wretched  bondmen  was  famish- 
ing for  the  bread  of  life.  This  tiny  mustard  seed  of 
knowledge  fell  into  soil  most  fruitful  and  was  destined 
to  bear  a  plentiful  harvest.  The  story  was  repeated  in 
Herrnhut,  and  within  a  few  months  five  intrepid  mes- 
sengers of  peace  were  ready  and  eager  to  endure  all  and 
risk  all,  whether  at  the  frozen  north,  or  under  the 
tropics,  and  in  the  latter  case  expecting  success  only  at 


66  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

the  cost  of  themselves  being  sold  into  slavery,  but  glad 
to  suffer  this,  or  even  to  die,  if  only  able  to  save  a 
single  soul.  Such  was  the  inspiring  and  most  extraor- 
dinary genesis  of  Moravian  missions.  Nor  from  that 
day  to  this  has  the  spirit  changed,  nor  has  a  halt  been 
called.  This  little  church  went  on  in  faith  and  love  to 
start  "more  missions  in  twenty  years  than  all  the  Prot- 
estant churches  together  had  in  two  hundred."  Dr. 
Warneck  justly  deems  Francke  and  Zinzendorf  "the 
fathers  of  the  modern  mission  to  the  heathen."  And 
further,  he  declares  of  the  latter  that  "  he  is  the  first  in 
modern  times  on  whose  heart  lay  day  and  night  the  de- 
sire that  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  might  see  the  salvation 
of  God."  Think  of  the  marvel,  six  missions  founded 
so  far  apart  in  six  brief  years  :  1732  in  the  West  Indies, 
1733  in  Greenland,  1734  among  the  American  Indians, 
1735  in  Surinam,  and  1736  in  South  Africa. 

We  come  now  to  a  great  gap,  extending  from  Zinzen- 
dorf to  Carey.  For  full  sixty  years  not  a  single  new 
missionary  undertaking  was  set  on  foot.  True  a  few  so- 
cieties were  organized  in  England,  whose  object  was  at 
least  semi-evangelistic.  Among  them  was  the  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,  dating  from 
1698,  and  which  through  this  period  supplied  Ziegen- 
balg  and  his  successors  with  the  sinews  of  war.  And 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  For- 
eign Parts,  chartered  by  King  William  in  1701,  and 
which  afterwards  sent  John  Wesley  to  Georgia.  The 
Scottish  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  fol- 
lowed in  1709,  one  of  whose  missionaries  in  later  years 
David  Brainerd  became.  The  few  honored  names  can 
be  mentioned  of  those  who  undertook  to  carry  on  the 
work  which  Eliot  and  the  Mayhews  had  begun  during 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS   BEFORE  CARFV.  67 

the  century  preceding.  Such  as  Horton,  who  labored 
among  the  Indians  of  Long  Island.  And  Sergeant,  who 
in  1734  resigned  a  tutorship  in  Yale  College,  and  re- 
moved to  Stockbridge  to  gather  the  scattered  Mohegans 
and  preach  to  them  the  gospel,  whose  successor  Edwards 
became  (1750-6).  In  New  Jersey  and  eastern  New 
York  Brainerd  was  in  evangelistic  labors  abundant  and 
greatly  blessed  (1744-7),  *s  wdl  as  Kirkland  among  the 
Oneidas  from  1764  onward.  In  1766  when  Occura 
visited  England  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Wheelock's  school  for 
Indians,  he  easily  raised  j£i  2,000  among  the  churches. 
But  all  things  considered,  the  phrase  "apostle  to  the 
Indians,"  whether  for  length  of  service  or  for  toils, 
sufferings,  and  mortal  perils  endured,  clearly  belongs  to 
the  Moravian  David  Zeisberger,  who  for  sixty-two  years 
(1746-1808),  devoted  himself  without  stint  to  the  Dela- 
wares  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan  and 
Canada. 

A  few  sentences  will  suffice  to  tell  of  the  great  changes 
in  the  political  world  which  had  an  intimate  bearing 
upon  missionary  movements  about  to  begin.  The  terri- 
torial growth  of  Great  Britain  was  astounding  during  the  % 
eighteenth  century,  and  both  in  the  east  and  the  west. 
The  Seven  Years'  War  was  of  slight  significance 
to  the  powers  of  Europe  engaged,  as  compared  with  its 
tremendous  outcome  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  For 
it  gave  to  Pitt  the  peerless  opportunity  to  end  forever,  at 
Quebec  in  1759,  tne  dominion  of  Catholic  France  in 
the  New  World,  and  in  India  in  1757  at  the  battle  of 
Plassey  to  lay  the  sure  foundations  for  British  dominion 
in  southern  Asia.  The  Dutch  were  also  largely  ex- 
pelled from  their  eastern  possessions,  losing  Ceylon  and 
Cape  Colony  in  1795.  *n  !787  Sierra  Leone  was  occu- 


68  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

pied  as  a  place  of  refuge  for  liberated  slaves.  Along 
with  this  material  preparation  for  missions,  for  fifty 
years  the  glorious  Wesleyan  revival  had  been  rising  and 
spreading,  that  greatest  effusion  of  the  Spirit  since  Pen- 
tecost, scarcely  less  important  to  Christendom  than  the 
Reformation  itself.  In  the  momentous  campaign  about 
to  begin  against  heathenism  throughout  the  whole 
world,  not  German  and  Scandinavian,  as  hitherto,  but 
Anglo-Saxon  Protestantism  was  destined  to  lead,  and  in 
the  bones  of  William  Carey  the  holy  fire  had  already 
begun  to  burn! 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  CAREY  EPOCH  IN  MISSIONS. 

THE  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  constitute 
in  the  history  of  Protestant  missions  an  epoch  indeed,  since 
they  witnessed  nothing  less  than  a  revolution,  a  renais- 
sance, an  effectual  and  manifold  ending  of  the  old,  a  sub- 
stantial inauguration  of  the  new.  It  was  then  that  for  the 
first  time  since  the  apostolic  period,  occurred  an  outburst 
of  general  missionary  zeal  and  activity.  Beginning  in 
Great  Britain,  it  soon  spread  to  the  Continent  and  across 
the  Atlantic.  It  was  no  mere  push  of  fervor,  but  a  mighty 
tide  set  in,  which  from  that  day  to  this  has  been  steadily 
rising  and  spreading.  Hitherto  all  similar  undertakings 
had  been  isolated,  spasmodic,  and  lacking  in  reliable 
support.  Spurts  of  vigor  were  certain  to  end  in  fatal 
relapse.  Excepting  in  the  case  of  the  noble  Moravian 
work,  every  attempt  had  thus  sooner  or  later  come  to 
failure.  But  from  this  time  forward  it  is  no  more  to  be 
after  this  discouraging  fashion.  Or  the  fact  may  be 
stated  in  this  way.  Hitherto  the  churches,  ministers  and 
people  together,  had  been  indifferent  to  the  spiritual 
condition  of  the  pagan  world.  Whatever  had  been  done 
was  the  achievement  of  some  single  earnest  soul,  or  some 
monarch,  and  usually  in  that  case  politics  entered  largely 
as  a  directing  force.  Only  a  little  circle  had  been 
aroused  and  moved  to  co-operate,  while  all  about  was  a 
dead  mass  of  apathy.  And  so,  naturally,  the  project 
ended  with  the  originator.  But  with  Carey  was  ushered 

69 


70  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

in  a  more  excellent  way.  A  few  elect  spirits  were 
touched,  and  from  them  the  flame  was  diffused  to 
Christians  of  other  names  in  all  the  dissenting  churches, 
and  to  the  great  Establishment  as  well ;  that  is  to  the  most 
intelligent  and  spiritual  in  each.  It  was  the  plain  peo- 
ple, the  masses,  that  now  began  to  pray  and  give  and 
go,  not  tarrying  in  the  least  for  king  or  prelate  to  hoist 
the  signal.  Or  this  form  of  expression  will  fairly  well 
complete  the  setting  forth  of  the  change  which  now  tran- 
spired, so  radical  and  sweeping  as  to  amount  to  a  revo- 
lution. Here  and  now  was  the  beginning  of  missionary 
organization.  From  henceforth  as  never  before,  emo- 
tion, desire,  holy  purpose,  were  to  be  incarnated  in  consti- 
tutions and  by-laws,  in  memberships  and  anniversaries,  in 
treasuries  and  systematic  giving,  the  continual  offering 
of  littles  by  each  one  in  great  multitudes.  And  Carey's 
Baptist  society,  which  originated  in  his  brain,  was  the 
model  for  the  scores  and  hundreds  which  followed  after. 
Thus  was  ushered  in  the  happy  day  of  voluntary  socie- 
ties, organizations  sustained  by  such  as  are  interested  in 
the  promotion  of  the  objects  sought. 

And  the  year  of  grace  1792  is  annus  mirabilis,  the 
famous  date  from  which  to  reckon  backward  and  for- 
ward. Well  may  it  stand  side  by  side  with  44  A.  D., 
when  the  Holy  Ghost  said,  "  Separate  me  Barnabas  and 
Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them."  Or 
53  A.  D.,  when  in  vision  Paul  was  bidden  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  gospel  in  Europe.  Whatever  has 
been  accomplished  since  can  be  traced  to  forces  which 
began  to  operate  a  hundred  years  ago.  And  Carey  is 
not  only  the  chief  figure  in  the  matter,  but  also  the 
supreme  personal  force — yes,  under  God  the  efficient 
cause  of  the  wondrous  changes  which  have  been  brought 


THE  CAREY   EPOCH   IN   MISSIONS.  71 

to  pass.  We  may  speak  of  the  "Carey  Epoch"  with 
every  whit  as  much  propriety  as  of  the  Luther  Reforma- 
tion. We  may  as  fitly  term  him  the  apostle  of  modern 
missions  as  Paul  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  or  Ulphilas 
the  apostle  to  the  Goths,  or  Augustine  apostle  to  the 
Britons,  or  Boniface  apostle  to  the  Germans. 

A  glance  at  such  incidents  of  Carey's  life  as  relate  to 
this  sublime  re-beginning  is  next  in  order.  In  1761 
a  babe  was  born  in  central  England  gifted  among  other 
things  with  a  measureless  and  inextinguishable  hunger 
for  knowledge,  and  a  capacity  seldom  matched  for  end- 
less plodding  and  hard  work.  And  a  will-power  was 
present  able  to  push  and  persist  without  limit,  but  which 
could  not  by  any  means  be  allured  or  driven  from  the 
pursuit  of  any  chosen  object.  To  such  royal  qualities 
were  joined  later  a  stalwart  faith,  and  a  zeal  for  right- 
eousness so  fervid  and  all-consuming  that  no  difficulties 
or  discouragements  could  quench  it.  At  seventeen  we 
find  him  a  shoemaker's  apprentice  at  Hackleton,  nine 
miles  from  his  birthplace.  Already  he  had  commenced 
the  diligent  study  of  birds,  eggs,  insects  and  plants,  and 
ere  long  had  begun  to  delve  deep  into  the  mysteries  of 
Latin,  Hebrew,  Greek  and  French.  And,  early  and 
often,  he  w  called  to  take  lessons  in  the  stern  disci- 
pline of  life.  When  about  twenty  he  was  married  to 
one  who  was  "querulous,  capricious,  obstinate,"  and 
without  sympathy  with  his  most  exalted  life-aims,  all 
this  perhaps  in  large  part  because  of  a  predisposition  to 
mental  disease.  He  passed  also  through  a  protracted 
season  of  ill  health,  and  besides  for  years  was  burdened 
by  the  woes  of  extreme  poverty.  And  further,  when 
the  voice  of  the  Lord  began  to  call  in  clearest  tones, 
"Go  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  whole  creation,"  year 


7*  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

after  year  he  stood  almost  utterly  alone  in  disposition  to 
obey. 

It  can  not  but  be  interesting  and  profitable  to  take  note 
of  the  various  steps  in  the  wondrous  unfolding  of  the 
Divine  plan.  This  future  hero  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  was  well  on  towards  manhood  before  his  spiritual 
nature  was  effectually  and  savingly  aroused,  and  then, 
reared  as  he  had  been  in  the  Established  Church,  hear- 
ing a  sermon  from  the  text  "  Let  us  go  forth  unto  him 
without  the  camp  bearing  the  reproach,"  he  made  a 
direct  personal  application  to  himself,  and  with  charac- 
teristic decision  and  practical  energy,  went  and  joined  a 
little  company  of  Baptists,  because  theirs  was  a  faith 
despised.  Nor  was  it  long  before  acceptable  preaching 
gifts  began  to  appear.  In  1 785  he  became  a  member  of 
the  Olney  church,  by  which  he  was  called  to  the  work 
of  the  ministry,  and  two  years  after  was  ordained  as 
pastor  of  the  Moulton  church,  ten  miles  from  Northamp- 
ton, upon  a  salary  of  but  ^15,  of  which  ^5  came  from 
London.  To  eke  out  a  living,  school-teaching  and  shoe- 
making  were  added  to  his  occupations.  It  was  while 
here  that  his  attention  was  first  fixed  upon  the  moral 
desolations  of  the  pagan  world,  and  his  heart  began  to 
be  deeply  moved  to  hasten  relief.  The  f,  is  estab- 
lished that  it  was  the  reading  of  the  voyages  of  Captain 
Cook  which  brought  this  weighty  theme  to  his  notice, 
"  though  if  ever  an  idea  was  originated  in  any  man  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  it  was  this  idea  of  the  evangelization 
of  the  world."  From  boyhood  books  of  science  and 
history  and  travel  had  been  his  delight,  and  now  from 
investigating  the  world's  physical  features,  he  turned 
with  all  his  might  to  an  examination  of  the  religious 
condition  of  mankind.  When  Fuller  once  visited 


THE  CAREY   EPOCH   IN   MISSIONS.  73 

Carey's  shop  in  Moulton  he  saw  upon  the  wall  near 
where  he  sat  at  his  work  a  roughly  sketched  map  of  the 
world,  upon  which  had  been  set  in  order  all  manner  of 
facts  and  figures,  to  picture  to  the  eye  what  needed  to 
be  done  for  the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel,  the  redemption 
of  the  race.  Already  also  had  fuel  been  added  to  the 
heavenly  flame  by  a  sermon  of  Fuller's  upon  "The 
Gospel  Worthy  of  all  Acceptation,"  which  convinced 
him  that  in  spite  of  any  hyper-Calvinistic  teaching  to 
the  contrary,  it  was  the  duty  of  all  men  to  believe,  and 
what  was  even  more  to  the  point  just  now,  the  duty  of 
Christians  to  go  everywhere  telling  the  glad  tidings  to 
all.  A  third  impulse  was  supplied  by  a  pamphlet  of 
Jonathan  Edwards',  published  in  1747,  and  recently 
reprinted  in  England,  which  exhorted  God's  people  to 
union  in  "  extraordinary  prayer  for  the  revival  of  religion 
and  the  advancement  of  Christ's  kingdom  upon  earth." 
As  a  result  of  reading  this,  the  Baptist  ministers  in  North- 
amptonshire set  apart  an  hour  for  prayer  on  the  first  Mon- 
day of  each  month,  that  the  power  of  the  Cross  might  soon 
be  displayed  in  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  habitable 
globe.  When  with  his  brethren  he  could  not  but  speak 
frequently  upon  the  all-absorbing  theme,  but  found  few 
to  listen  with  interest,  while  as  for  most  he  seemed  to  be 
a  dreamer,  a  teller  of  idle  tales,  one  gone  daft,  his  con- 
clusions irrational,  his  plans  impracticable,  his  longings 
such  as  never  could  be  met.  Meantime  his  ministry 
had  been  removed  to  Leicester.  It  was  a  crisis  in  his 
career,  that  day  at  the  Association,  when  having  been 
urged  by  the  moderator  to  name  a  subject  for  discussion, 
after  endeavoring  to  shun  the  responsibility,  he  finally 
propounded  this  question,  "  Whether  the  command 
given  to  the  apostles  to  teach  all  nations  was  not  obliga- 


74  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

tory  on  all  ministers,  to  the  end  of  the  world."  And  the 
reply  of  the  aged  Ryland  did  but  express  the  indifference 
and  unbelief  of  Christendom;  "Sit  down,  young  man. 
You  are  a  miserable  enthusiast  to  ask  such  a  question. 
When  God  wants  to  convert  the  world,  he  can  do  it 
without  your  help ;  and  at  least  nothing  can  be  done 
until  a  second  Pentecost  shall  bring  a  return  of  the 
miraculous  gifts."  As  yet  no  one  had  begun  to  suspect 
that  here  was  a  "  young  man  "  already  actually  possessed 
of  the  substance  of  that  old-time  enduement,  even  to  the 
speaking  with  tongues  ! 

However,  not  in  the  least  shaken  in  his  purpose  by 
this  rebuff  and  rebuke,  the  heroic  subject  thereof  is  pres- 
ently found  engaged  upon  the  task  of  arguing  and  prov- 
ing his  case  with  his  pen.  That  is,  he  put  on  paper 
with  remarkable  clearness,  fulness,  and  cogency,  a  tabular 
statement  of  the  size,  population,  religious  condition, 
etc.,  of  the  various  countries  in  the  Old  World  and  the 
New,  and  then  went  on  to  prove  that  the  Lord's  command 
and  commission  were  perpetual,  to  recite  the  efforts 
which  in  each  century  had  been  put  forth,  and  to  demon- 
strate the  practicability  of  making  further  attempts.  This 
memorable  presentment,  so  novel  and  so  purely  original 
with  Carey,  which  one  of  his  biographers  pronounces 
the  "first  and  still  greatest  missionary  treatise  in  the 
English  language,"  closed  with  an  appeal  for  united 
prayer,  and  besides,  since  petition  without  suitable  ef- 
fort to  match  would  be  but  mockery,  the  gift  regularly 
from  each  one  of  a  penny  a  week  was  suggested.  As 
another  token  of  the  current  spiritual  blindness  and 
apathy,  for  sheer  lack  of  means  to  print,  this  pamphlet 
lay  for  six  years  in  manuscript  and  unread.  But  that 
the  precious  leaven  of  missionary  desire  was  spreading 


THE  CAREY   EPOCH   IN   MISSIONS.  75 

is  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  the  Association  meeting 
held  in  1791  the  two  preachers,  Sutcliff  and  Fuller, 
chose  kindred  themes;  the  former  taking  for  his  text 
I.  Kings  19:10,  "  I  have  been  very  jealous  for  the  Lord 
God  of  hosts,"  and  the  latter  from  Haggai  1:2,  "This 
people  say,  The  time  is  not  come  that  the  Lord's  house 
should  be  built."  Noticing  how  deep  and  solemn  was 
the  impression  produced  by  these  discourses,  Carey, 
with  whom  action,  as  a  matter  of  course,  must  needs  fol- 
low hard  upon  the  heels  of  knowledge  and  conviction, 
proposed  to  begin  at  once  to  plan  and  to  organize  for 
vigorous  endeavor.  But  for  the  others  the  vision  of 
privilege  and  obligation  was  still  too  dim,  and  the  ob- 
jects aimed  at  were  too  indefinite  and  out  of  reach.  And 
so  another  year  passed  in  inaction. 

But  May  3151,  1792,  a  date  to  be  memorized  by  every 
lover  of  the  kingdom,  came  the  life-opportunity  for  this 
irrepressible  agitator  for  the  opening  of  a  world-wide 
evangelistic  campaign.  For  the  Baptist  ministers  are 
found  together  again  at  Nottingham,  and  Carey  has  been 
chosen  to  preach.  Judged  by  its  momentous  and  far- 
reaching  results  his  sermon  must  be  considered  one  of 
the  very  chiefest  in  Christian  history,  perhaps  second 
only  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  With  Isaiah  54:2-3 
for  a  text,  he  proceeded  to  unfold  the  two  matchless  and 
immortal  subdivisions,  "Expect  great  things  from  God," 
and — eminently  Carey-like  from  first  to  last — joining 
untiring  works  to  stalwart  faith,  "  Attempt  great  things 
for  God."  In  that  never-to-be-forgotten  hour  the  con- 
clusions, the  convictions,  the  longings  of  years  first  found 
full  expression,  and  so,  not  strangely,  the  emotions  of 
those  who  listened  were  aroused  to  somewhat  of  sympa- 
thy. But  nevertheless,  though  hearts  were  swayed,  and 


76  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

some  tears  fell,  the  audience  was  about  to  separate  with- 
out open  definite  commitment  to  any  "  attempt "  in  be- 
half of  the  fervid  speaker's  "great  things."  So  in  an 
agony  of  desire  mingled  with  fear,  Carey  siezed  Fuller 
by  the  arm  and  exclaimed  ;  "  Are  you  going  to  again  do 
nothing?"  And  it  was  then,  as  the  latter  admits,  "  to 
pacify  him  and  also  to  gain  time,"  that  it  was  decided 
to  organize  at  a  meeting  to  be  held  five  months  hence, 
and  Carey  was  counselled  to  publish  his  pamphlet  in  the 
meantime.  In  due  season  came  forth  from  the  press 
"  An  Enquiry  into  the  Obligations  of  Christians  to  use 
Means  for  the  Conversion  of  the  Heathen,  in  which  the 
Religious  State  of  the  Different  Nations  of  the  World, 
the  Success  of  Former  Undertakings,  and  the  Prac- 
ticability of  Further  Undertakings,  are  considered  by 
William  Carey." 

In  due  season  also,  at  Kettering  in  the  back  parlor  of 
the  Widow  Beebe  Wallis,  was  formed  the  "  Particular 
Baptist  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  Among  the 
Heathen."  How  utterly  insignificant  were  the  actors 
for  number,  or  station,  or  gifts  !  Only  twelve,  belong- 
ing to  a  feeble  and  despised  sect,  and  unheard  of  outside 
of  the  interior  counties  in  which  they  lived.  Only  one 
London  clergyman  gave  countenance  to  the  movement. 
Kings,  statesmen,  church-magnates  cared  nothing,  knew 
nothing.  And  they  made  a  subscription  on  the  spot  for 
the  world's  conversion,  which  amounted  to  £12  25.  6d., 
over  which  the  brilliant  Sydney  Smith  made  merry  years 
after,  for  its  preposterous  inadequacy  when  the  souls  of 
420,000,000  were  concerned.  Indeed,  how  sublime  was 
that  act  of  faith,  that  venture  far  beyond  the  realm  of 
sight.  How  exceedingly  remote  were  the  heathen,  and 
what  an  uncounted  host.  The  undertaking  was  vast  be- 


THE  CAREY    EPOCH   IN   MISSIONS.  77 

yond  conception,  and  the  issue  exceedingly  doubtful.  It 
was  like  crossing  the  Rubicon,  like  nailing  the  theses  to 
the  church  doors,  putting  forth  from  Palos  upon  the 
untraversed  sea,  or  burning  the  ships  to  make  retreat  im- 
possible. However,  it  was  easy  enough  to  resolve,  and 
to  adopt  a  constitution  and  by-laws,  and  not  so  very  dif- 
ficult to  subscribe,  but  after  that  came  the  real  tug  of 
war.  The  pertinent  and  very  practical  question  was 
next  to  be  answered,  "  Who  shall  be  sent  forth,  and 
whither  in  all  the  pagan  world  shall  they  journey?" 
Carey  offered  himself  as  a  candidate  on  the  sole  condition 
that  a  companion  be  found  to  go  with  him,  and  his 
thought  had  long  been  centered  upon  the  South  Seas 
and  the  Society  Islands  as  the  most  eligible  spot  for  a 
beginning.  A  committee  was  chosen  to  investigate  and 
decide,  and  was  not  left  long  to  wait,  for  the  pillar  of  fire 
soon  began  to  rise  and  move  forward.  By  "accident" 
a  certain  John  Thomas,  surgeon  in  the  employ  of  the 
East  India  Company,  in  Bengal  since  1783,  converted 
there  and  led  to  engage  in  evangelistic  work  in  behalf  of 
the  Hindus,  had  recently  returned,  and  was  now  in 
London  endeavoring  to  raise  money  for  further  efforts. 
He  was  heard  of,  and  was  sent  for,  and  finally  was  in- 
vited to  return  under  the  auspices  of  the  new  society 
with  Carey  as  associate.  Thus  did  the  divine  hand 
guide  this  master-missionary  to  make  assault,  not  upon 
one  of  the  comparatively  unimportant  outworks  of 
heathenism,  but  directly  upon  one  of  the  mightiest  of 
its  central  strongholds. 

But  trials  and  tribulations  in  plenty  were  yet  in 
store.  The  Leicester  church  was  loath  to  lose  its  be- 
loved pastor,  and  touchingly  alleged,  "We  have  been 
praying  for  the  spread  of  Christ's  kingdom  among  the 


78  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

heathen,  and  now  God  requires  us  to  make  the  first 
sacrifice."  Next  Carey's  wife,  having  no  sort  of  appre- 
ciation for  his  life-aims,  utterly  refused  to  share  the  risks 
and  hardships  involved  in  carrying  them  out.  And 
though  the  idea  cost  pain  unspeakable,  for  weeks  im- 
perative duty  appeared  to  compel  him  to  set  forth 
alone,  leaving  her  behind,  at  least  for  a  season.  Then 
too  India  was  15,000  miles  away;  the  East  India  Com- 
pany was  in  full  possession,  no  Englishman  could  land 
upon  its  shores  without  a  license,  while  as  for  mis- 
sionaries, they  were  held  in  fear  and  abomination,  the 
gospel  being  "a  contraband  article"  in  those  climes. 
After  the  utmost  of  influence  had  been  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  directors,  it  became  evident  that  no  license 
was  to  be  obtained  ;  and  therefore,  recalling  that  the 
apostles  did  not  wait  for  permission  from  Caesar,  or  any 
earthly  authority,  our  hero  resolved  to  set  forth  without 
the  consent  of  the  Company  and  take  the  consequences. 
Then  the  climax  of  embarrassment  and  discouragement 
was  connected  with  Thomas.  In  most  respects  he  was 
but  a  weak  vessel,  and  among  the  rest,  had  an  amazing 
proclivity  for  being  always  overwhelmingly  in  debt. 
Through  his  influence  with  the  captain,  passage  had 
been  surreptitiously  engaged  upon  one  of  the  Company's 
ships,  the  fare  had  been  paid,  and  the  baggage  put  on 
board.  But  delayed  long  by  storms  under  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  one  of  Thomas'  creditors  hearing  of  their 
design  to  proceed  to  India  without  leave,  sent  a  commu- 
nication to  the  captain  threatening  exposure.  Hence 
the  missionaries  were  put  ashore,  with  the  loss  of  the 
bulk  of  their  passage  money.  But  fortunately  a  few 
days  after  a  Danish  East  Indiaman  lay  in  Dover  Roads 
(here  again  did  Denmark  through  her  settlements  in  the 


THE   CAREY   EPOCH   IN   MISSIONS.  79 

east  unwittingly  do  an  important  service  to  Christian 
missions),  upon  which  transportation  was  secured,  and 
at  the  last  moment  visiting  his  erratic  wife,  Mrs.  Carey 
consented  to  accompany  him,  only  stipulating  that  a 
sister  might  also  go. 

It  was  June  i3th,  1793,  that  the  departure  was  finally 
made,  and  they  set  sail  upon  a  voyage  so  pregnant  with 
consequences  to  Christianity  unspeakably  great,  and  five 
months  later  landed  in  Calcutta,  and  on  the  9th  of 
November. 

Of  course  the  passage  of  these  events  produced 
scarcely  a  ripple  upon  the  surface  of  the  social,  or 
political,  or  even  religious  world,  were  almost  altogether 
unnoticed  and  unknown.  And  not  many  historians  even 
yet  make  the  slightest  mention  of  them.  In  those  days 
the  tremendous  stir  over  the  American  Revolution  was 
quieting  down,  but  only  to  be  succeeded  by  the  vastly 
more  fearful  commotion  from  across  the  English  Chan- 
nel. It  will  be  instructive  to  set  down  a  few  dates 
which  locate  what  many  would  still  deem  the  notable 
happenings  of  the  period.  In  1789  first  burst  forth  the 
volcano  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  July  gth  the 
Bastile  fell.  June  2oth,  1791,  King  Louis  XVI.  fled 
from  Paris.  August  i8th  of  the  next  year,  a  few  weeks 
after  Carey's  immortal  sermon,  the  Invasion  of  France 
by  the  allies  began,  and  the  next  month  followed  the 
September  Massacres,  and  the  Republic  was  proclaimed. 
January  2ist,  1793,  l^e  king  ascended  the  scaffold; 
March  nth  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  was  set  up  and 
the  Reign  of  Terror  was  inaugurated  ;  and  June  and,  a 
fortnight  before  Carey  sailed,  the  Girondists  fell ;  and 
as  he  was  nearing  his  destination  the  hapless  Marie 
Antoinette  met  her  fate,  the  Girondists  following  hard 


So  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

after.  As  God,  and  angels,  and  glorified  saints  esti- 
mate human  affairs,  who  will  dare  affirm  that  the 
Hackleton  cobbler's  part  in  history  is  not  in  every  way 
worthy  to  be  compared  with  that  of  Chatham  and 
Napoleon,  George  III.  and  Burke,  Mirabeau  and  La 
Fayette? 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  GREAT  MISSIONARY  REVIVAL. 

BEFORE  proceeding  further  with  the  thrilling  story  of 
the  notable  renewal  and  expansion  of  missionary  en- 
deavor, which  set  in  almost  from  Carey's  sublime  vent- 
ure, it  will  be  of  value  to  put  in  a  paragraph  a  summary 
of  what  the  whole  of  Protestant  Christendom  was  doing 
at  that  date  for  the  whole  of  heathendom.  And  first  as 
to  the  religious  condition  of  the  earth's  population, 
quoting  the  language  of  his  famous  "  Enquiry  "  :  "The 
inhabitants  of  the  world  amount  to  731,000,000;  420,- 
000,000  of  whom  are  still  in  pagan  darkness ;  130,000,- 
ooo  the  followers  of  Mahomet ;  100,000,000  catholics; 
44,000,000  protestants ;  30,000,000  of  the  greek  and 
armenian  churches,  and  perhaps  7,000,000  of  jews.  It 
must  undoubtedly  strike  every  considerate  mind,  what 
a  vast  proportion  of  the  sons  of  Adam  there  are,  who 
yet  remain  in  the  most  deplorable  state  of  heathen 
darkness,  without  any  means  of  knowing  the  true  God, 
except  what  are  afforded  them  by  the  works  of  nature ; 
and  utterly  destitute  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  or  of 
any  means  of  obtaining  it.  In  many  of  these  countries 
they  have  no  written  language,  consequently  no  Bible, 
and  are  led  only  by  the  most  childish  customs  and  tra- 
ditions," etc.,  etc.  Now,  to  meet  and  improve  this 
most  lamentable  and  appalling  condition,  what  endeav- 
ors can  we  discover  ?  Well,  the  Moravians  were  carrying 
on  missions  with  some  fair  degree  of  success  in  Green- 
Si 


82  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

land,  Labrador,  in  the  West  Indies,  and  Surinam,  had 
once  begun  work  in  South  Africa,  had  been  driven  out, 
and  in  the  year  of  Carey's  great  sermon  had  sent  an- 
other force.  Besides  Zeisberger  and  a  few  associates 
were  still  toiling  under  incredible  hardships  and  dis- 
couragements among  the  Delawares,  and  after  various 
removals,  and  one  wholesale  massacre  of  their  innocent 
converts,  were  now  for  safety  in  Canada.  The  Danish- 
Halle  mission  had  pushed  in  all  directions  from  Tran- 
quebar,  had  received  cheering  support  from  Denmark, 
Germany  and  England,  had  enjoyed  a  period  of  pros- 
perity, but  at  present  for  several  reasons,  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  steady  and  lasting  decline.  Schwartz  had 
before  him  yet  six  years  of  life.  In  1757  Kiernander 
had  gone  thence  to  Calcutta  to  open  a  mission  in  that 
city  and  was  still  doing  his  utmost  to  advance  the  Gospel 
among  both  natives  and  Europeans.  As  other  earnest 
Christians,  whose  hearts  were  engaged  and  whose  hands 
were  busy,  may  be  named  Mr.  Udney,  Charles  Grant  and 
David  Brown  of  the  East  India  Company,  the  latter  a 
chaplain.  Scarcely  a  trace  was  left  of  Eliot's  work  for  the 
Indians  except  his  Bible,  the  last  of  five  generations  of 
Mayhews  was  ministering  to  a  feeble  remnant  of  a  single 
tribe.  On  account  of  the  excitements  and  passions  re- 
sulting from  the  French  War,  and  the  Revolution,  mis- 
sionary toil  for  the  aborigines  had  almost  entirely  ceased. 
And  finally,  as  recently  as  1786,  Coke,  while  on  a  voy- 
age to  Nova  Scotia,  having  been  driven  by  a  terrible 
storm  far  to  the  southward  and  making  land  first  in  An- 
tigua, was  led  to  start  a  mission  upon  that  island. 
Something  such  was  the  situation,  and  the  outlook, 
when  Carey  and  Thomas  left  England  behind,  and 
turned  their  faces  resolutely  towards  India.  But  note 


THE  GREAT   MISSIONARY   REVIVAL.  83 

the  sublime  audacity  of  faith  which  prompted  this 
dauntless  apostle  to  write  while  in  mid-ocean  :  "I  hope 
the  society  will  go  on  and  increase,  and  that  the  multi- 
tudes of  heathen  in  the  world  may  hear  the  glorious 
words  of  truth.  Africa  is  but  a  little  way  from  Eng- 
land, Madagascar  is  but  a  little  further.  South  Amer- 
ica and  all  the  numerous  and  large  islands  in  the  Indian 
and  China  Seas,  I  hope  will  not  be  passed  over."  And 
this  also  a  few  months  later  when  the  very  blackness  of 
darkness  seemed  to  have  settled  down  :  "  Well,  I  have 
God,  and  his  word  is  sure  j  and  though  the  superstitions 
of  the  heathen  were  a  million  times  worse  than  they  are, 
if  I  were  deserted  by  all,  and  persecuted  by  all,  yet  my 
hope,  fixed  on  that  word,  will  rise  superior  to  all  ob- 
structions, and  triumph  over  all  trials.  God's  cause  will 
triumph,  and  I  shall  come  out  of  all  trials  as  gold  puri- 
fied by  the  fire." 

With  such  a  spirit  inspiring  and  propelling  the  leader, 
no  wonder  that  something  great  in  the  way  of  results 
began  presently  to  appear.  But  nevertheless,  these  words 
of  George  Smith  are  true :  "  The  first  two  English  mis- 
sionaries to  India  seemed,  to  those  who  sent  them  forth, 
to  have  disappeared  forever.  For  fourteen  months  no 
tidings  of  their  welfare  reached  the  poor  praying  people  of 
the  midlands,  who  had'  been  emboldened  to  begin  the 
enterprise."  But  July  29th,  1794,  letters  arrived  for 
Ryland,  of  Bristol,  who  read  them  and  sent  at  once 
for  Dr.  Bogue,  of  Gosport,  an  Independent  clergyman, 
and  Mr.  Stephen,  to  rejoice  with  him.  First  they  all 
gave  thanks  and  prayed  for  a  blessing  upon  the  Baptist 
Society,  and  then  the  two  latter  called  upon  Mr.  Hey,  a 
prominent  minister,  and  it  was  determined  to  begin  im- 
mediately to  agitate  for  the  organization  of  a  similar 


84  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

society,  though  with  a  much  broader  ecclesiastical  basis. 
Suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  Dr.  Bogue  prepared  an 
article,  which  in  September  appeared  in  the  Evangelical 
Magazine,  addressed  to  ' '  Evangelical  dissenters  who 
practise  infant  baptism,"  urging  all  such  to  bestir  them- 
selves ;  arguing  that  the  time  had  fully  come  to  begin  ; 
expressing  the  conviction  that  many  would  be  found 
willing  and  eager  to  assist,  if  only  a  few  would  step  forth 
to  lead,  and  that  funds  sufficient  could  be  gathered  to 
support  at  least  twenty  or  thirty  missionaries.  So  Carey's 
letters  and  this  article  in  God's  hands  proved  to  be  the 
"  little  fire  "  which  kindled  "  how  great  a  matter." 

The  effect  of  this  clarion  call  was  immediate,  and  pro- 
found, and  wide-spread.  The  next  month  it  was 
further  stated  in  the  same  periodical  that,  if  a  society 
should  be  formed  upon  a  large  scale,  and  a  basis  so 
broad  as  to  unite  Christians  "  without  respect  to  differ- 
ent denominations,  or  repulsive  distinctions  arising  from 
points  in  dispute  between  Calvinists  and  Arminians," 
one  man  stood  pledged  for^ioo,  and  another  for  ^500, 
to  equip  the  first  six  volunteers  for  a  mission  to  the  South 
Seas.  Some  weeks  later  appeared  the  suggestion  over  the 
signatures  of  eighteen  Independent,  seven  Presbyterian, 
three  Wesleyan,  and  three  Episcopal  ministers,  for  a 
meeting  for  consultation,  urging  that  in  the  meantime  local 
and  district  gatherings  be  held  to  excite  interest,  collect 
funds,  and  choose  delegates.  In  July,  1795,  another 
article  reached  the  public  from  the  glowing  pen  of  "  T. 
H."  [Haweis,  a  Church  of  England  clergyman,  whose 
influence  through  the  years  next  ensuing  was  unequalled 
in  raising  enthusiasm  and  moving  to  effort,]  "  showing 
the  very  probable  success  of  a  proper  mission  to  the 
South  Seas,"  giving  a  long,  and  glowing,  and  intensely 


THE  GREAT  MISSIONARY  REVIVAL.  85 

rose-colored  setting-forth  of  the  situation  in  those  remote 
parts,  proving  conclusively  the  islands  to  be  a  very  ter- 
restrial paradise,  and  the  people  thereof  the  loving  and 
lovable  innocent  children  of  nature  ! 

Then  at  length,  all  things  being  ready,  September 
2ist,  the  illustrious  meetings  began  in  London.  At  the 
outset  subscriptions  were  made  by  the  country  ministers 
amounting  to  ^750.  Many  encouraging  letters  from 
all  parts  of  the  island  were  read ;  it  was  announced  that 
several  men  were  ready  to  offer  themselves  as  pioneers 
in  the  work ;  and  the  vote  was  unanimous  to  organize 
at  once.  This  "  fundamental  principle,"  which  still 
remains  in  the  constitution  of  the  London  Society,  was 
adopted  :  "  The  design  is  not  to  send  Presbyterian  ism, 
Independency,  Episcopacy,  or  any  other  form  of  church 
order  and  government  (about  which  there  may  be  dif- 
ference of  opinion  among  serious  persons),  but  the  glorious 
Gospel  of  the  blessed  God  to  the  heathen ;  and  it  shall 
be  left  (as  it  ought  to  be)  to  the  minds  of  the  persons 
whom  God  shall  call  into  the  fellowship  of  his  Son 
from  among  them  to  assume  for  themselves  such  forms 
of  church  government  as  to  them  shall  appear  most 
agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God."  Through  three  full 
blissful  days  the  meetings  continued,  with  two  sermons 
each  day  from  eminent  divines  upon  pertinent  themes, 
and  to  audiences  "  immensely  great."  It  seemed  like  a 
new  Pentecost  "  with  Christians  of  all  denominations 
for  the  first  time  in  the  same  place,  using  the  same 
hymns  and  prayers,  and  feeling  themselves  to  be  one." 
Two  hundred  ministers  sat  together  in  the  galleries; 
and  Dr.  Bogue  said  :  "  We  are  called  together  for  the 
funeral  of  bigotry  ;  and  I  hope  it  will  be  buried  so  deep 
as  never  to  rise  again."  Whereat  "  the  whole  vast  body 


86  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

could  scarce  refrain  from  one  general  shout  of  joy  .  .  . 
Such  a  scene  was  never,  perhaps,  before  beheld  in  our 
world ;  and  it  was  a  foretaste  of  heaven.  .  .  .  We  shall 
account  it  through  eternity  a  distinguished  favor,  the 
highest  honor,  that  we  appeared  here  and  gave  in  our 
names  among  the  founders  of  the  society.  This  will  be 
ever  remembered  by  us  as  the  era  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence." 

The  heavenly  flame  thus  kindled  in  the  metropolis 
quickly  spread  throughout  all  Britain,  and  it  followed, 
of  course,  that  money  in  abundance  began  to  flow  in 
from  all  quarters.  One  church  in  Southampton  sub- 
scribed ^270,  and  from  Market  Harborough  came 
^83  is.  7d.,  with  this  word:  "No  event  in  life  has 
given  me  more  pleasure  than  this  glorious  attempt  to 
send  forth  the  gospel."  The  children  in  a  boarding- 
school,  unasked,  gave  ^i  95.  6d.  Scotland  also  caught 
the  evangelistic  fervor,  missionary  societies  were  soon 
formed  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  and  before  many 
months  had  passed,  some  ^12,000  had  been  forwarded 
to  London.  This  novel  idea  of  missions  to  the  whole 
wide  world  took  such  complete  possession  of  Robert 
Haldane  that  he  planned  a  vast  mission  to  Bengal,  of 
which  he  was  to  meet  the  entire  cost,  proposing  to  go 
out  himself  and  securing  t)r.  Bogue  as  an  associate. 
And  when  the  East  India  Company  refused  their  consent 
to  the  scheme,  turning  his  beneficence  into  channels 
nearer  at  hand,  with  his  brother  James  he  formed  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  at  Home,  and 
within  twelve  years  expended  in  connection  with  it  the 
princely  sum  of  ^£70,000.  Nor  did  the  tide  of  holy 
zeal  fail  to  cross  the  Channel  and  arouse  the  saints  upon 
the  Continent,  whose  contributions  ere  long  rose  to 


THE  GREAT   MISSIONARY   REVIVAL.  87 

^1,500.  It  came  to  pass  that  by  the  end  of  October 
the  directors  had  ^3,000  in  hand,  which  was  more  than 
doubled  three  months  later,  and  in  June  of  1796  they 
report  the  receipts  as  ^£10,000.  Missionaries  had  also 
offered  themselves  in  encouraging  numbers.  By  mid- 
summer it  was  decided  to  purchase  a  ship  and  to  open 
missions  at  once  in  Otaheite,  the  Friendly  and  Pelew 
Islands,  and  the  Marquesas,  with  projects  besides  look- 
ing towards  Madagascar,  the  West  Indies,  and  the  north 
shore  of  the  Caspian  !  So  great  was  their  faith,  and  so 
enlarged  were  their  ideas  and  longings.  And  thus 
early  the  prophetic  hope  was  expressed  that  this  uprising 
for  the  world's  redemption  ' '  will  spread  to  every  Chris- 
tian bosom,  to  the  Dutch,  German,  American,  and  all 
Protestant  churches,  till  the  whole  professing  world  shall 
burn  with  fervent  love,  and  labor  to  spread  in  every 
heathen  land  the  sweet  savor  of  the  Redeemer's  name." 
Accordingly,  the  Duff  was  purchased  at  a  cost  of 
,£4,875,  and  was  furnished  for  her  voyage  to  the  antip- 
odes at  an  additional  expense  of  more  than  ^£7,000, 
several  years'  supplies  for  the  missionaries  included.  A 
profit  of  ^£5,000  was  expected  from  freight  to  be  brought 
upon  the  homeward  trip.  A  call  was  made  and  nobly 
responded  to,  for  books,  tools,  cooking  utensils,  instru- 
ments, seeds  and  other  supplies;  and  one  poor  man 
expended  £2  as.  upon  six  spades,  nine  hammers  and 
four  thousand  sixpenny  and  tenpenny  nails.  July  28th 
the  twenty-nine  persons  who  had  been  chosen  as 
missionaries  were  solemnly  set  apart  to  the  high  calling — 
six  of  them  being  married,  only  four  of  the  number 
ordained,  one  a  physician,  two  children,  and  the  others 
artisans.  Thousands  joined  in  the  novel  and  most  im- 
pressive service,  and  no  less  than  ten  clergymen,  repre- 


88  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

senting  Episcopalians,  Presbyterians,  Independents,  Sece- 
ders  and  Wesleyans,  joining  in  the  public  exercises, 
"showing  that  affection  is  increasing  between  ministers 
of  different  denominations,  who,  previous  to  this  institu- 
tion, had  neither  fellowship  nor  intercourse."  In  refer- 
ence to  the  religious  situation  it  was  written  soon  after  : 
"  In  no  instance  in  the  limits  of  our  recollection  has  such 
a  spirit  of  prayer  and  supplication  been  poured  out  upon 
the  churches,  or  such  general  approbation  been  dis- 
covered. The  greatest  kindness  has  been  displayed  in 
all  departments  of  the  government.  Neither  the 
Council  Board  nor  the  Custom  House  would  accept 
fees."  Wednesday,  August  loth,  1796,  at  five  A.  M., 
the  Duff  dropped  down  from  Blackall  to  Gravesend,  a 
vast  multitude  beholding,  and  came  to  anchor  at  Spit- 
head  the  Tuesday  following.  The  East  India  convoy 
having  already  sailed,  she  was  compelled  (since  the 
French  wars  were  then  raging)  to  wait  six  weeks  at 
Portsmouth  for  the  Adamant,  a  fifty-two  gun  ship. 
September  22nd  found  her  at  St.  Helen's.  The  day 
after  her  anchors  were  finally  hoisted,  and  her  sails  were 
spread  for  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Thus  the  great  under- 
taking followed  in  Carey's  path,  indeed  three  years  and 
a  half  later  than  he,  and  yet  in  some  respects  at  least, 
far  outdoing  that  peerless  founder  and  pioneer.  It  was 
at  this  juncture  that  one  moralized  with  altogether  par- 
donable exaltation  of  feeling  :  "  It  is  highly  probable 
that  since  the  Lord  and  the  apostles,  the  bosom  of  the 
deep  has  never  been  graced  with  such  a  vessel,"  or  one 
"  in  which  so  many  thousands  of  Christians  embarked 
their  hopes  and  followed  with  their  prayers." 

What  remarkable  growth  may  be  discerned  during  the 
brief  period  under  view.     How  different  all  this,  for  the 


THE  GREAT  MISSIONARY  REVIVAL.  89 

number  and  variety  and  standing  of  those  interested,  for 
magnitude  of  operations  and  for  eclat,  from  the  deed  of 
those  twelve  obscure  Northamptonshire  Baptist  ministers 
with  their  ridiculously  inadequate  subscription,  and  the 
almost  insuperable  obstacles  which  to  the  last  moment 
hedged  up  the  way  of  Carey  and  Thomas.  For  nearly 
two  years,  until  May,  1 798,  not  a  word  was  heard  from 
Captain  Wilson  and  the  tremendous  venture  made  by 
faith.  Leaving  the  Duff  to  battle  for  weeks  with  fearful 
storms  off  Cape  Horn,  and  then,  baffled,  facing  about  to 
beat  her  way  past  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  through  262  de- 
grees of  longitude,  let  us  glance  at  certain  steps  of  progress 
meantime  taken  at  home.  Measures  were  immediately 
taken  to  start  a  second  mission  in  the  Foulah  country, 
some  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Sierra  Leone,  for 
which  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  offered  to  supply  two 
men  each,  and  the  London  Society  was  to  add  the  same 
number.  Plans  were  also  laid  for  a  mission  in  Cape 
Colony,  which  had  recently  been  transferred  from  Hol- 
land to  Great  Britain.  In  January,  1797,  it  could  be 
affirmed  concerning  the  religious  fervor  resulting  far  and 
wide:  "Christians  in  every  corner  of  the  land  are 
meeting  in  a  regular  manner,  and  pouring  out  their  souls 
for  God's  blessing  on  the  world."  And  again:  "The 
efforts  most  successfully  made  to  introduce  the  Gospel 
to  the  South  Seas  have  had  a  most  powerful  tendency  to 
unite  the  devoted  servants  of  Christ  of  every  denomina- 
tion in  the  bonds  of  brotherly  love,  and  to  awaken  zeal 
to  help  the  perishing  multitudes  in  our  own  country,  and 
also  the  Jews."  So  early  was  the  discovery  made  that 
the  best  possible  way  to  forward  the  work  of  evangeliza- 
tion at  home  is  to  push  missions  abroad  with  all  ardor 
and  energy.  Month  by  month  came  tidings  of  both 


90  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

local  and  district  movements  to  raise  missionary  funds, 
and  to  multiply  toilers,  both  at  many  points  in  the  heathen 
world,  and  in  every  destitute  region  where  the  gospel  is 
already  known.  For  this  purpose  scores  of  organiza- 
tions were  formed  in  every  denomination.  Similar 
interest  sprang  up  in  America ;  in  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and  in 
various  other  parts  of  the  Union.  Nor  was  the  enthusi- 
asm less  upon  the  Continent,  for  in  Germany,  Holland, 
Sweden,  and  Switzerland  societies  were  organized.  With 
all  these,  as  well  as  with  various  individuals  of  influence, 
the  directors  of  the  London  Society,  the  main  center 
and  source  of  the  unprecedented  outburst  of  faith  and 
love  and  good  works,  opened  correspondence  for  mutual 
instruction  and  encouragement.  Among  the  rest  Von 
Schirnding,  a  German  nobleman,  was  delighted  to  hear 
of  the  evangelizing  projects  on  foot ;  for  years  he  had 
been  cherishing  similar  schemes,  and  would  aid  liberally 
with  money  and  men.  And  Vanderkemp,  in  Holland, 
a  famed  soldier,  scholar,  and  physician,  and  aforetime 
a  pronounced  sceptic,  offered  himself  as  a  messenger  of 
glad  tidings  to  the  heathen,  though  past  fifty  years  of 
age,  and  proceeded  to  organize  the  Netherlands  Mission- 
ary Society.  By  the  sudden  death  of  his  wife  and  only 
child  by  drowning  he  had  forever  lost  his  infidelity  to 
the  last  fraction,  had  come  across  a  copy  of  the  report 
of  the  great  London  meeting  containing  the  sermons  and 
addresses,  etc.,  and  one  text,  "Curse  ye  Meroz," 
entered  his  soul.  'Falling  on  his  knees  he  cried :  "  O 
Lord  Jesus,  here  am  I.  Thou  knowest  I  have  no  will  of 
my  own  since  I  devoted  myself  to  thy  service.  Prevent 
me  only  from  doing  this  great  work  in  a  carnal,  self- 
sufficient  spirit,  and  lead  me  in  the  right  way."  Inspir- 


THE  GREAT   MISSIONARY   REVIVAL.  9! 

ing  letters  came  too  from  Basle,  which  since  1771  had 
been  the  seat  of  a  wide-spread  movement  "  to  maintain 
evangelical  doctrine  and  piety."  Certain  devout  Ger- 
man brethren  sent  their  congratulations  couched  in  these 
glowing  words  :  "  It  is  like  the  dawn  promising  the 
beautiful  day  after  the  dark  night.  It  is  the  beginning 
of  a  new  epoch  for  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  Your 
undertaking  and  its  success  fills  our  hearts  with  joy  and 
our  eyes  with  tears.  The  history  of  Great  Britain  is 
sanctified  by  this  unparalleled  mission.  What  harmony 
among  different  persuasions  !  You  call  on  the  wise  and 
good  of  every  nation  to  take  interest  in  the  work  and 
bear  a  part.  Such  a  call  was  never  heard  of  before.  It 
was  reserved  for  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  to 
be  distinguished  by  it."  And  thus  it  was  that  the  tide 
of  zeal  rose  and  spread  abroad. 

The  first  tidings  from  the  precious  missionary  ship 
arrived  in  May  of  1798,  in  a  letter  from  Captain  Wilson 
written  at  Canton  six  months  before,  and  in  July  follow- 
ing the  Duff  lay  at  anchor  in  the  Downs.  Now  natur- 
ally came  the  climax  of  exultation  and  buoyant  hope. 
"  Never,  perhaps,  was  an  undertaking  more  com- 
pletely accomplished.  Fifty-one  thousand  miles  have 
been  traversed  without  the  least  material  loss  or  damage. 
The  winds  conspired  to  waft  them  safely  and  swiftly  to 
their  desired  haven.  Everywhere  they  were  received  by 
the  natives  with  reverence  and  delight.  All  are  settled 
in  the  islands  they  preferred,  and  apparently  in  the 
greatest  safety.  At  Otaheite  a  most  fertile  district  was 
bestowed  upon  them,  and  a  commodious  building."  In 
a  public  address  to  Captain  Wilson,  Dr.  Haweis  did  not 
fail  to  surpass  tb<»  iBLc?t  fervid  and  fanciful  in  his  por- 
trayal of  the  past,  present  and  future  of  the  mission. 


92  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

But  the  directors  well  understood  that  something 
besides  paeans  of  gladness  were  in  order,  and  therefore, 
immediately  after  a  day  of  special  thanksgiving  had  been 
devoutly  observed,  they  met  to  plan  both  how  to  main- 
tain communications  with  the  brethren  already  sent  out, 
and  also  to  open  other  fields  for  toil.  Their  faith  and 
courage  hesitated  not  to  scan  an  evangelistic  campaign 
in  behalf  of  the  kingdom  as  extensive  as  this :  "  Hin- 
dustan, the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  other  groups  of  the 
Pacific ;  the  Creek  Indians,  Canada,  the  Bermudas,  and 
any  West  India  islands,  and  any  coasts  of  America  or 
Asia."  And  presently  they  notify  the  churches  :  '*  We 
must  have  an  enlarged  supply  of  money  and  men.  We 
expect  a  body  of  German  missionaries,  and  we  plan  to 
engage  a  great  company  and  teach  them  both  theologi- 
cal knowledge  and  also  occupations  adapted  to  the 
islands."  But  just  now  all  their  energies  were  concen- 
trated upon  preparing  for  a  second  voyage  of  the  Duff, 
with  Captain  Robson  in  command.  By  November  i3th 
forty-six  were  in  readiness — nineteen  single  men  and  ten 
married,  with  seven  children — and  were  separated  for 
the  work  whereunto  they  had  been  called.  On  the  2oth 
the  Duff  dropped  down  the  Thames,  and  ten  days  later 
weighed  anchor.  But  December  8th  found  her  with 
seventy  ships  at  Spithead,  where  on  account  of  fogs  she 
lay  over  two  Sundays;  on  the  2ist  a  south-west  wind 
was  so  fierce  that  the  fleet  put  into  Portland  Roads,  and 
a  day  or  two  afterwards  was  off  and  out  of  sight  under 
convoy  of  the  frigate  Amphion.  In  the  same  company 
sailed  the  Hillsborough>  bearing  some  hundreds  of  con- 
victs bound  for  New  South  Wales,  and  also  Dr.  Vander- 
kemp  and  three  companions,  en  route  to  preach  to  the 
Hottentots  in  South  Africa.  These  devoted  men  pre- 


THE  GREAT  MISSIONARY  REVIVAL.  93 

ferred  to  voyage  on  this  ship  filled  with  the  worst  of 
criminals,  in  order  that  during  the  five  months  of  the 
passage  they  might  have  opportunity  to  labor  for  their 
salvation. 

Hitherto,  for  five  years  together,  the  flood  of  good 
feeling  and  expectation  of  large  results  had  been  steadily 
swelling  with  scarce  a  refluent  wave.  Not  a  threaten- 
ing storm-cloud  had  crossed  the  sky.  But,  of  course, 
such  encouraging  conditions  could  not  always  continue. 
God's  way  with  his  kingdom  is  not  after  this  fashion. 
As  might  have  been  expected,  and  as  was  on  every 
account  best  for  all  concerned,  a  series  of  trials  and 
searching  tests  now  ensued  in  the  shape  of  serious  re- 
verses, and  failures  apparently  most  disastrous,  coming 
from  various  quarters,  of  divers  kinds,  and  dropping 
down  in  quick  succession.  The  current  emotion,  though 
mainly  noble  and  Christian,  contained  also  not  a  little 
of  unhealthy  excitement.  Zeal  was  all  aflame,  but  was 
not  wholly  according  to  knowledge,  while  many  of  the 
expectations  most  fondly  cherished  were  unreasonable, 
and  without  basis  in  fact.  The  Millennium  had  not 
yet  dawned,  the  victory  over  heathenism  and  savagery, 
even  in  the  charming  South  Seas,  was  not  to  be  won 
without  a  fight  long  and  most  arduous.  It  had  already 
been  noticed,  and  with  deepest  solicitude,  that  scarcely 
a  clergyman,  and  not  one  of  note  and  influence,  had 
offered  himself  to  go  wherever  the  Lord  through  the 
Society  should  please  to  send  him.  Those  who  volun- 
teered were,  with  few  exceptions,  laymen  from  the  hum- 
bler walks  of  life,  without  learning,  of  but  common  gifts 
and  attainments.  And  even  these  had  not  been  sifted 
with  sufficient  care,  quite  a  number  proved  incompe- 
tent, and  some  even  morally  unworthy.  Trouble  broke 


94  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

out  in  the  company  which  had  been  despatched  to  the 
Foulah  country.  They  separated  in  alienation,  some 
died,  and  war  breaking  out  among  the  savages,  others 
left  and  so  the  mission  came  utterly  to  grief.  Next, 
early  in  August,  1799,  the  directors  were  stunned  with 
the  intelligence  that  the  Duff  had  been  captured  by  a 
French  privateer  when  off  Rio  Janeiro,  and  had  been 
taken  to  Montevideo  and  sold  as  a  prize.  The  mis- 
sionaries would  be  sent  home,  but  the  money  loss  was 
^10,000.  Then  on  the  heels  of  these  evil  tidings,  came 
the  further  calamitous  news  from  Otaheite  that  most 
of  the  missionaries  who  had  been  left  there  had  fled  the 
island,  their  lives  seeming  to  be  in  danger,  and  by  a 
chance  vessel  had  been  carried  to  Port  Jackson  in  New 
South  Wales,  this  long  journey  also  entailing  large 
expense.  Likewise  at  Tongabatoo  catastrophe  had 
befallen,  for  some  had  died,  some  had  fallen  into  shame- 
ful lewdness  with  the  natives  and  had  been  cut  off  from 
fellowship,  and  finally  civil  war  had  broken  out,  in  which 
the  brethren  had  been  first  robbed,  and  then  expelled. 
Only  from  Vanderkemp  and  his  Hottentots  arrived 
words  of  cheer.  He  was  able  to  write  that  he  had 
made  a  beginning,  and  that  a  "singular  interest  "  had 
appeared.  The  "  Spirit  had  begun  a  good  work  in  some 
of  the  most  abject  and  uncultured  of  the  race."  But 
there  was  no  flinching  or  turning  back  in  consequence. 
Without  a  moment's  hesitation,  either  on  the  part  of 
directors,  or  of  the  Christian  public,  the  task  was  reso- 
lutely taken  up  of  repairing  the  damage,  and  of  sending 
reinforcements  to  the  South  Seas  and  to  South  Africa. 
By  May  of  1800,  a  contingent  of  sixteen  men  had  been 
forwarded  to  the  front. 
The  thrilling  story  will  for  the  present  be  suspended 


THE  GREAT   MISSIONARY  REVIVAL.  95 

of  the  London  Society,  whose  beginnings  were  so  glor- 
ious, as  well  of  such  incalculable  importance  both  to 
Christendom  and  to  the  whole  heathen  world.  It  was 
not  long  after  the  hopes  of  so  many  of  the  earnest- 
hearted  had  been  so  rudely  hurled  from  the  zenith  to  the 
nadir,  that  they  began  again  slowly  and  steadily  to  rise. 
Only  the  South  Seas  proved  to  be  no  sinless,  stormless 
Eden,%and  their  inhabitants  turned  out  to  be  exactly  of 
a  piece  with  savages  elsewhere.  Many  reverses  were 
yet  in  store,  and  long  and  tedious  waiting  for  the  pre- 
cious fruits  of  toil  was  to  be  required.  Early  in  this 
century  India,  China  and  the  West  Indies  were  entered, 
Madagascar,  that  shining  marvel  among  missions,  in 
1818.  And  these  immortal  names  among  others  are 
found  upon  the  list  of  those  sent  out  by  this  honored 
society :  Ellis  and  Livingstone,  Morrison  and  Milne, 
Medhurst  and  Moffat,  Vanderkemp,  and  John  Williams 
the  martyr  of  Erromanga. 

No  mortal  can  tell  just  how  many  missions,  both  in 
the  Old  World  and  the  New,  owe  their  birth  either  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  to  that  astonishing  evangelistic  re- 
vival in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
which  under  God  originated  vastly  more  with  Carey 
than  with  any  other  man,  and  of  which  the  London 
Society  was  not  only  one  of  the  most  remarkable  effects, 
but  also  in  no  inconsiderable  measure  the  cause.  As  we 
have  seen,  in  its  organization  several  denominations 
were  heartily  united,  and  it  seemed  to  some  that  the  end 
of  bigotry  and  sectarian  division  had  arrived.  But 
presently  the  process  of  withdrawal  began,  and  contin- 
ued until  the  Independents  were  left  practically  alone. 
The  Episcopalians  led  the  way  in  1799  by  forming  what 
now  is  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  one  of  whose 


96  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

fundamental  rules  has  been  from  the  first :  "A  friendly 
intercourse  shall  be  maintained  with  other  Protestant 
Societies  engaged  in  the  same  benevolent  design  of  prop- 
agating the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ."  One  of  the  most 
serious  defects  in  the  period  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  for 
many  years  no  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England 
offered  their  services,  and  the  only  missionaries  to  be 
obtained  were  German  Lutherans  from  the  training  in- 
stitutions of  Berlin  and  Basle.  Among  the  earlier  soci- 
eties to  be  formed  substantially  upon  the  pattern  set  by 
Carey  these  may  be  named  :  In  1804  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society;  in  1810  the  American  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions ;  the  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Union  in  1814;  the  Basle  Society  in  1815  ;  the 
Wesleyan  Society  in  1816;  the  Paris  Society  in  1822; 
the  Berlin  Society  in  1824;  and  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land in  1829.  The  number  has  increased  at  the  average 
rate  of  nearly  three  a  year,  until  now,  a  century  after 
the  Deed  of  the  Twelve  in  the  back  parlor  of  Widow 
Beebe  Wallis,  if  all  be  included,  whether  denomina- 
tional or  individual,  general  or  special,  it  exceeds  five 
hundred. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  GENESIS  OF  MISSIONS  IN  AMERICA. 

WITH  all  this  kindling  of  interest,  and  enlargement 
of  effort  for  the  world's  redemption  in  Protestant 
Europe,  what  was  there  in  the  meantime  to  match  upon 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic?  Some  two  hundred 
years  ago  a  tide  of  colonization  had  set  this  way,  and 
by  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  several 
millions  were  found  settled  within  the  limits  of  the 
United  States.  But  in  the  main,  in  the  midst  of  wilder- 
ness depths,  interminable  and  appalling,  with  a  vast  con- 
tinent to  subdue,  including  forests,  soil,  wild  beasts,  and 
savage  tribes.  Emigration  is  always,  and  of  necessity, 
a  step  towards  primitive  rudeness,  if  not  barbarism. 
The  early  generations  endured  poverty,  severest  toil, 
great  exposure  to  the  elements  and  to  mortal  peril,  and 
wide-spread  demoralization  resulted.  The  settlements 
were  small,  widely  scattered,  stretching  along  the  coast 
for  a  thousand  miles.  The  population  was  divided  up 
into  colonies  which  were  distinct,  independent,  with 
little  in  common,  and  often  jealous  rivals.  Besides, 
wars  had  been  frequent  with  the  Indians,  the  French, 
and  finally  with  the  mother  country,  and  attended  with 
measureless  excitement  of  evil  passion,  and  deadening 
of  spiritual  fervor.  Then  too  a  profound  reaction  was 
in  progress  against  the  stringency  of  Puritan  belief  and 
practice,  while  the  churches  were  suffering,  like  Prot- 
estantism in  the  Old  World,  from  rationalism  and  dead 


98  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

brthodoxy,  to  which  was  added  near  the  close  of  the 
century  the  further  blight  produced  by  French  infidel- 
ity. 

To  complete  a  survey  of  the  situation,  it  is  necessary 
also  to  recall  the  fact  that  American  Christians  had  no 
immediate  contact  with  the  heathen  world  through 
colonies  and  resulting  commerce,  but  were  widely  iso- 
lated. To  be  sure,  there  were  a  few  thousand  Indians 
at  their  doors,  and  to  these  at  the  first  the  gospel  had 
been  carried,  with  at  least  some  measure  of  earnestness  ; 
but  after  some  generations  of  experience  of  the  toma- 
hawk and  the  scalping  knife,  hate,  or  at  least  indiffer- 
ence, had  taken  the  place  of  love,  and  in  addition  these 
troublesome  pagans  had  largely  disappeared  from  the 
region  lying  to  the  east  of  the  Appalachians.  And 
finally,  as  emigration  began  to  the  Great  West,  the  burn- 
ing religious  question  related  to  home  missions.  Great 
populations  were  in  the  greatest  spiritual  destitution,  and 
these  were  their  brethren,  their  dear  friends,  their  sons 
and  daughters.  Naturally,  and  not  improperly,  their 
first  thought,  and  the  bulk  of  their  beneficence,  were 
bestowed  upon  the  needy  frontier.  And  surely,  upon 
no  other  body  of  churches  was  so  appalling  a  task  ever 
imposed  as  upon  those  of  the  United  States,  which  must 
needs  help  to  subdue  a  continent,  and  spread  over  it  the 
social  and  political  institutions  of  a  mighty  Republic, 
and  also  diffuse  and  maintain  a  pure  gospel  throughout 
all  the  boundless  spaces  from  ocean  to  ocean.  And, 
whatever  the  causes  may  have  been,  the  fact  is  patent 
that  at  the  time  Carey  was  agitating  and  undertaking 
in  Great  Britain,  the  churches  in  America  were  utterly 
idle  and  asleep  as  touching  any  form  of  evangelizing 
effort  for  the  great  world  lying  in  wickedness.  Eliot 


THE  GENESIS   OF  MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  99 

and  the  Mayhews  were  still  held  in  loving  and  reverent 
remembrance,  as  also  Edwards  for  his  work  for  the  In- 
dians at  Stockbridge.  His  stirring  call  to  a  monthly 
concert  of  prayer  had  had  a  wide  circulation,  and 
churches  not  a  few  had  met  at  stated  times  for  united 
supplication.  The  life  of  David  Brainerd  by  Edwards 
was  a  source  of  continual  inspiration  to  thousands.  But 
just  now  in  missions,  as  in  so  many  other  realms,  the 
old  had  passed  away,  old  ideas,  old  methods,  old  instru- 
mentalities, and  the  new  and  better  which  were  to  take 
their  place  were  just  coming  into  being. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  the  idea  of 
world-wide  missions,  the  evangelization  of  the  entire 
race,  had  not  begun  to  dawn  upon  the  consciousness  of 
American  Christians.  Though  for  sixty  years  the  Mora- 
vians had  been  bearing  the  glad  tidings  to  distant  lands  ; 
though  Ziegenbalg,  and  Schwartz,  and  Carey,  and  Van- 
derkemp  had  been  preaching  Christ  to  the  perishing  in 
India  and  Africa ;  and  though  already  in  Great  Britain 
several  missionary  societies  had  been  formed,  still  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  even  among  the  most  earnest- 
hearted,  to  not  a  soul  came  overwhelming  solicitude, 
conviction,  and  longing,  in  keeping  with  the  Lord's  last 
command.  Hitherto  the  best  efforts  had  been  individual, 
unsystematic,  sporadic  and  transient.  As  yet  there  had 
been  no  attempt  at  coming  together  in  combination 
and  co-operation,  to  fashion  some  comprehensive  and 
far-reaching  scheme  to  carry  the  light  far  and  wide 
through  all  the  desolate  lands  of  darkness.  The  nearest 
approach  to  the  founding  of  a  foreign  mission  had  been 
made  in  1774,  when  Ezra  Stiles  and  Samuel  Hopkins, 
New  England  Congregationalists,  laid  before  the  Presby- 
terian Synod  of  New  York  a  proposition  to  send  two 


IOO  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

natives  of  Africa,  who  had  been  converted  and  were  novr 
in  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  "  on  a  mission  to  propa- 
gate Christianity  in  their  own  country,"  and  requesting 
approval  and  assistance.  The  Synod  replied  :  ' '  We 
are  ready  to  concur  and  do  all  that  is  proper,  since  many 
circumstances  intimate  it  is  the  will  of  God."  The 
Presbyterians  of  Scotland  were  similarly  appealed  to,  but 
this  promising  undertaking  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the 
Dark  Continent,  in  which  three  divisions  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  were  ready  to  unite,  was  prevented  by  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  In  1802  the 
Massachusetts  Baptist  Missionary  Society  was  organized 
"  to  promote  the  knowledge  of  evangelical  truth  in  new 
settlements  of  the  United  States,  or  further,  if  circum- 
stances should  render  it  proper ;"  and  two  years  later 
the  Massachusetts  (Congregational)  Missionary  Society 
changed  its  constitution  so  as  to  read  :  "  Among  people 
of  newly  settled  and  remote  parts,  among  the  Indians, 
and  through  more  distant  regions  as  circumstances  in- 
vite and  ability  admits."  The  horizon  is  evidently  re- 
ceding, the  spiritual  vision  has  a  broader  sweep,  but  for 
some  years  to  come  almost  all  movements  towards  organ- 
ization will  be  but  local,  or  bounded  by  state  lines. 
The  real  Union,  the  nation,  had  not  come  into  exist- 
ence. 

The  fact  is  patent  that  missions  in  America  were  an 
outgrowth  almost  direct  from  missions  in  Great  Britain — 
though  of  course  at  the  same  time  various  causative 
forces,  mighty  although  less  visible,  were  operating 
throughout  Christendom — so  that  William  Carey  was  the 
father  of  the  former  as  well  as  of  the  latter.  In  spite  of 
the  violent  sundering  which  had  recently  taken  place 
between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country,  the  rela- 


THE  GENESIS  OF  MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  IO1 

tions  still  existing  were  at  many  points  most  intimate, 
and  especially  upon  the  intellectual  and  religious  side. 
Great  movements  starting  across  the  sea  were  quickly 
known  and  deeply  felt  here  also.  Consequently, 
when  the  English  Baptists  launched  forth  in  their  sub- 
lime endeavor,  and  when  soon  after  Carey  sailed  for 
Calcutta,  the  New  World  also  was  looking  on  with 
wonder  and  admiration.  In  particular,  the  Baptists  of 
this  country  were  eager  watchers.  Dr.  Staughton,  later 
a  pastor  in  Philadelphia,  had  heard  Carey's  famous 
sermon,  and  like  all  the  auditors  was  stirred  to  the 
depths  ;  he  was  present  too  at  the  organization  in  Ket- 
tering,  and  into  the  collection  cast  a  half-guinea 
borrouied  for  the  purpose,  ever  after  declaring  that  he 
"  rejoiced  more  over  it  than  over  any  other  sum  he  ever 
gave  in  his  life."  Letters  and  missionary  reports  sent 
by  English  Baptists  were  quite  extensively  circulated. 
And,  since  Carey  with  all  his  stalwart  faith  in  God,  was 
also  a  stanch  believer  in  the  efficacy  of  vigorous  and 
uninterrupted  good  works,  and  hence  among  the  rest 
was  a  most  indefatigable  letter  writer,  information  and 
exhortation  were  poured  forth  in  all  directions  from  his 
prolific  pen.  Thus  communications  not  a  few  reached 
New  England  and  the  Middle  States,  were  read  with 
interest,  and  as  a  result,  considerable  sums  of  money 
were  forwarded  to  Serampore.  In  1806-7  he  acknowl- 
edges the  receipt  of  $6000,  and  says:  "The  Lord  has 
wonderfully  stirred  the  whole  religious  world  of  every 
denomination  to  favor  our  work  and  contribute  to  a  large 
amount ;  and  our  American  friends  have  special  claims 
on  our  gratitude  in  this  respect."  And  further  in  1811, 
through  the  action  of  the  Boston  Baptist  Association, 
$4650  were  contributed  by  persons  of  different  denom- 


102  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

inations  in  eastern  Massachusetts,  to  aid  in  carrying 
forward  his  numerous  translations  of  the  Scriptures  into 
Asiatic  languages.  Hence  the  assertion  is  abundantly 
justified  that  "we  are  indebted  to  those  pioneers  for  the 
example  which  gave  a  powerful  impulse  to  missions  by 
arousing  the  interest  and  embodying  the  efforts  of  all 
denominations." 

But  an  impulse  vastly  greater  was  imparted  three 
years  later,  when  the  London  Missionary  Society  leaped 
forth  suddenly  into  vigorous  life.  Says  Rev.  Kiah 
Bailey:  "In  1797  Rev.  Alexander  McLean,  of  Bristol, 
Maine,  received  from  Scotland  the  sermons  of  Dr. 
Haweis  and  others  preached  at  the  organization,  was 
charmed  by  reading  them,  and  loaned  the  pamphlet  to 
me.  I  took  the  pamphlet  to  Newburyport,  where  it  was 
soon  reprinted  and  read  with  avidity  by  various  others, 
and  among  them  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Worcester,  who 
thus  caught  the  sacred  flame.  And  so  was  started  the 
rill  which  led  to  the  river  "  (the  formation  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board).  In  1796  a  society  was  organized  in  New 
York  in  which  Presbyterians,  Baptists  and  Reformed 
(Dutch)  were  united,  and  monthly  meetings  were  held 
to  pray  that  "the  God  of  grace  would  pour  out  His 
Spirit  on  His  Church  and  send  the  Gospel  to  all 
nations."  By  1807  five  societies  had  been  established 
in  Massachusetts  alone  to  propagate  Christianity,  and 
similar  ones  in  all  the  New  England  States,  with  some 
also  in  the  Middle  States.  During  the  first  five  years  of 
the  century  these  periodicals  were  started,  and  com- 
bined to  gather  and  to  scatter  missionary  intelligence 
from  the  Old  World :  the  Connecticut  Evangelical  Mag- 
azine, the  Massachusetts  Missionary  Magazine,  the 
Massachusetts  Baptist  Missionary  Magazine,  the  Fano- 


THE  GENESIS  OF   MISSIONS   IN  AMERICA.  103 

plist,  and  the  (Presbyterian)  Religious  Intelligencer.  In 
1804  the  Massachusetts  Society  chose  the  president  of 
the  London  Society  an  honorary  trustee.  It  was  during 
this  same  period  that  Melville  Home's  "Letters  on 
Missions,"  and  Claudius  Buchanan's  "  Star  in  the 
East  "  were  published  and  produced  a  surprising  sensa- 
tion. In  addition,  the  churches  began  to  be  moved  by 
missionary  discourses  as  never  before.  Upon  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  in  1806  Dr.  Griffin  "  urged  the  claims  of 
the  heathen  and  the  greatness  and  excellence  of  mission- 
ary work  with  an  eloquence  and  earnestness  seldom,  if 
ever,  surpassed."  The  next  year,  Parish,  before  the 
Massachusetts  Domestic  Missionary  Society,  dwelt  upon 
' '  the  growing  conviction  of  the  value  of  Christianity  ; 
and  so  it  was  a  good  time  to  send  missionaries  to  every 
nation."  In  1808  the  General  Assembly  appointed  a 
day  of  fasting  and  prayer  to  beseech  "  God  to  bless  the 
efforts  of  His  people  to  Christianize  the  heathen  and  to 
extend  the  Gospel."  The  same  year,  in  Cambridge, 
Holmes  hailed  ' '  the  approaching  day  when  idols  would 
be  cast  to  the  moles  and  bats,  and  all  false  faiths  be  super- 
seded by  the  glorious  Gospel  of  God."  Only  a  few 
days  before  the  American  Board  came  into  being,  at  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Society,  Norton 
had  the  boldness  to  inquire:  "Is  the  expectation  vis- 
ionary and  unfounded  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  from  the  United  States,  missionaries  will  go  forth  to 
every  region  of  the  globe,  accompanied  with  the  fervent 
prayers  of  thousands?"  Finally,  as  early  as  1806, 
Norris,  of  Salem,  had  given  $10,000  to  found  Andover 
Theological  Seminary,  and  declared,  "  My  object  is  the 
foreign  mission  enterprise,  for  we  must  have  ministers  if 
we  are  to  have  missionaries."  Thus  it  becomes  abund- 


104  A  HUNDRkD  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

antly  evident  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Most  High  was  work- 
ing upon  many  hearts,  and  that  something  notable  was 
at  hand. 

These  were  but  some  of  the  preliminary  and  prepara- 
tory steps,  and  such  were  some  of  the  significant  signs 
of  the  times.  Hitherto  evangelistic  zeal  had  been  only 
general  and  indefinite,  destitute  of  specific  object  and 
aim ;  but  now  we  begin  to  come  upon  desires  and  con- 
victions burning  in  the  bosoms  of  godly  and  heroic  men, 
which  cannot  at  all  be  contained  within  the  realm  of 
thought  and  emotion,  but  must  leap  forth  and  incarnate 
themselves  in  action.  "  With  such  feelings  and  utter- 
ances among  the  elders,  it  is  not  strange  that  from 
among  the  young  men  some  should  catch  the  spirit  and 
purpose  actually  to  engage  in  missions/'  At  this  point, 
in  the  person  of  Samuel  J.  Mills,  there  begins  to  come 
into  very  prominent  view  one  who  without  doubt  may 
properly  be  termed  the  American  counterpart  of  William 
Carey.  If  there  were  need  of  offering  proof  of  this  as- 
sertion, it  would  be  sufficient  to  set  forth  the  distin- 
guished and  essential  part  he  afterward  played,  not  only 
in  the  organization  of  the  American  Board,  the  Corn- 
wall Mission  School  and  the  mission  to  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  but  also  of  the  United  Foreign  Missionary 
Society,  the  American  Bible  Society,  the  American  Col- 
onization Society,  and  the  school  in  New  York  for  the 
Education  of  Africans.  Like  the  Hebrew  Samuel,  from 
his  birth  Mills  had  been  lent  to  the  Lord — not  to  serve 
in  the  tabernacle,  but  to  make  living  and  life-long  sac- 
rifices in  pagan  lands.  When  but  a  child  he  "acci- 
dentally "  heard  his  mother  mention  to  a  neighbor  the 
fact  of  his  having  been  given  to  the  work  of  missions, 
and  he  never  forgot  it,  but  was  continually  inspired  and 


THE  GENESIS   OF   MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  105 

impelled  thereby  to  his  dying  day.  She  often  also  told 
him  stories  of  Eliot,  Brainerd  and  others.  Converted 
in  1802,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  his  controlling  purpose 
was  already  so  clear  and  strong  that  he  could  say  to  his 
father :  "I  cannot  conceive  of  any  course  in  life  in 
which  to  pass  my  days  that  would  prove  so  pleasant  as 
to  go  and  communicate  the  gospel  of  salvation  to  the 
poor  heathen."  And  even  then  his  longing  was  to  be  a 
missionary,  not  to  the  Indians  near  at  hand,  but  in 
some  far  off  foreign  country.  Entering  Williams  Col- 
lege in  1806,  his  heart  was  too  much  aflame  with  an- 
other master-passion  to  allow  him  to  excel  in  his 
studies.  The  story  is  familiar  how  a  few  kindred  spirits 
were  soon  found,  or  fashioned,  and  at  once  they  began 
to  pray,  and  ponder,  and  plan.  There  is  no  occasion 
to  dwell  upon  the  memorable  meeting  under  the  hay- 
stack when  the  great  decision  was  made,  or  upon  the 
secret  society  with  its  solemn  pledge  to  the  foreign 
work,  or  the  careful  and  judicious  canvass  of  ways  and 
means  for  furthering  the  momentous  project  they  had 
so  fervently  at  heart.  The  object  of  the  organization 
was  ' « to  effect  in  the  person  of  its  members  a  mission 
to  the  heathen,"  and  the  constitution  was  drawn  up  in 
cipher,  "public  opinion  being  opposed  to  us,"  and 
"lest  we  should  be  thought  rashly  imprudent,  and  so 
should  injure  the  cause  we  wish  to  promote."  They 
proceeded  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  various  clergy, 
men  of  influence,  and  opened  a  correspondence  with 
others.  They  secured  the  publication  and  distribution 
of  various  sermons  and  other  works  on  missionary  sub- 
jects. They  visited  a  number  of  colleges,  or  wrote 
thither,  to  kindle  the  holy  flame  in  the  breasts  of  other 
young  men.  And  surely  here  was  found  a  remarkable 


106  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

combination  of  fervent  zeal  with  knowledge  of  men  and 
affairs.  With  all  their  indomitable  resolution  and  bound- 
less ardor,  anything  approaching  dangerously  near  to 
fanaticism  would  be  hard  to  find.  The  spirit  which 
lifted  them  up  and  bore  them  onward  may  be  discerned 
in  the  reply  of  Hall  when  later  he  was  importuned  to 
take  a  Connecticut  pastorate  :  "  No,  I  must  not  settle 
in  any  parish  in  Christendom.  Others  will  be  left 
whose  health  or  pre-engagements  require  them  to  stay ; 
but  I  can  sleep  on  the  ground  and  endure  hunger  and 
hardship.  God  calls  me  to  the  heathen.  Woe  to  me 
if  I  preach  not  the  gospel  to  the  heathen." 

In  1809  the  scene  shifts  to  Andover,  the  doors  of  that 
institution  having  been  opened  for  students  only  the 
year  before ;  and  the  little  band  from  Williams  was 
reinforced  by  Nott  and  Newell,  and  a  few  months  later 
by  Judson,  coming  each  from  a  different  college,  and 
each  also  having  arrived  independently  at  the  dominant 
conviction.  Judson  had  read  Buchanan's  "  Star  in 
the  East,"  and  "the  evidences  of  divine  power  manu 
Tested  in  the  progress  of  the  gospel  in  India  fell  like  a 
spark  into  the  tinder  of  his  soul."  "  I  could  not  study ; 
I  depicted  to  myself  the  romantic  scenes  of  missionary 
life;  I  was  in  a  great  excitement."  A  few  months 
sufficed  to  bring  him  to  the  fixed  purpose  to  devote  his 
Jife  to  a  missionary  career.  And  though  several  with 
wrhom  he  counselled  thought  the  idea  was  irrational, 
And  though  at  a  latter  date  he  was  called  to  the  pas- 
torate of  an  important  church  in  Boston,  nothing  could 
change  his  determination,  but  he  wrote  to  the  London 
Society  with  reference  to  sending  him  out,  and  thus 
began  to  move  before  he  knew  of  any  other  who  was 
like-minded.  The  meetings  of  these  young  men  to 


THE  GENESIS   OF  MISSIONS    IN   AMERICA.  I  ;  ; 

strengthen  one  another  in  their  purpose  and  planning  to 
extend  the  bounds  of  the  dominion  of  their  dear  Lord 
has  been  likened  to  that  striking  scene  in  the  chapel  at 
Mont  Martre,  where  nearly  three  hundred  years  before, 
the  seven  founders  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  met  to  ex- 
change their  vows.  Though  wholly  of  one  desire  and 
determination,  they  were  as  yet  also  wholly  without 
knowledge  as  to  who  would  authorize  them  to  go  and 
send  them  forth,  as  well  as  to  what  particular  portion  of 
the  wide  world  they  should  direct  their  efforts.  Con- 
sulting the  seminary  faculty,  and  their  designs  find- 
ing favor,  at  length  a  conference  with  several  clergymen 
was  arranged  for  June  25th,  1810,  and  they  were  ad- 
vised to  petition  the  General  Association  of  Massachu- 
setts to  move  in  the  matter,  as  that  body  was  to  meet 
at  Bradford  the  next  day.  The  petition  was  duly  pre- 
pared and  presented,  signed  originally  by  the  entire 
six ;  but  lest  the  large  number  should  strike  some  timid 
souls  through  with  terror,  two  names  were  taken  off! 
This  decisive  document  set  forth  that  their  "  minds  had 
long  been  impressed  with  the  duty  and  importance  of 
personally  attempting  a  mission  to  the  heathen,"  and 
inquired  if  they  could  expect  ' '  patronage  and  support 
from  a  society  in  this  country,  or  if  they  must  commit 
themselves  to  the  direction  of  a  European  society." 
And  it  was  as  the  direct  result  of  such  urgency  and 
agitation  on  the  part  of  this  consecrated  company  that 
the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions  came  into  being,  the  first  of  the  kind  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  whose  aim  was  nothing  less  than 
to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.  And  thus  it  was,  therefore,  that  American 
missions  were  bora. 


108  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

it  is  believed  that  at  this  date  not  less  than  eighteen 
or  twenty  persons  had  been  seriously  considering  the 
personal  claims  upon  them  of  missionary  work,  and  of 
course  more  or  less  of  interest  had  been  excited  in  the 
minds  of  a  much  larger  number.  But  even  now  only  a 
few  ministers,  and  of  laymen  fewer  still,  had  attained  to 
any  considerable  measure  of  interest.  The  Prudential 
Committee  were  thoroughly  persuaded  that  a  consider- 
able time  must  elapse  before  they  could  hope  to  sustain 
a  mission  on  a  promising  scale  in  any  land.  One  of 
their  number,  a  successful  Boston  merchant,  was  opposed 
to  sending  out  any  men  at  all  unless  a  fund  of  at  least 
$60,000  was  in  store  for  use  in  case  of  inadequate  re- 
ceipts ;  and  an  effort,  which  fortunately  was  fruitless, 
was  actually  made  to  raise  a  large  sum  for  investment, 
while  but  one  was  found  venturesome  enough  to  insist 
that  they  should  go  forward  just  as  soon  as  an  eligible 
field  was  found,  fund  or  no  fund,  holding  that  the  Lord's 
hand  was  evidently  in  the  matter,  and  that  therefore  the 
way  would  be  opened  in  due  season,  if  only  they  be- 
stirred themselves  with  vigor.  The  young  men  were 
counselled  to  pursue  their  studies  meanwhile  and  wait  in 
patience  for  developments.  Recourse  was  had  to  the 
London  Society  to  see  if  the  candidates  could  not  be 
sent  out  by  the  two  bodies  in  co-operation,  and  Judson 
was  sent  to  England  to  confer  concerning  this  project. 
Through  a  kind  providence,  however,  nothing  came  of 
his  mission,  and  hence  all  concerned  were  compelled  to 
rely  wholly  upon  God  and  their  own  exertions. 

And,  verily,  those  were  the  days  of  small  things.  At 
the  end  of  the  first  year  the  receipts  had  reached  but 
$999.52,  and  when  the  next  year  was  well  advanced  the 
treasury  contained  only  $1200.  Hence  with  a  minimum 


THE  GENESIS  OF   MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  109 

of  sight  for  a  foundation,  upon  which  faith  might  stand 
and  plume  itself  for  loftier  flight  into  the  realm  of  the 
unseen  and  unknown,  it  is  not  in  the  least  strange  that 
there  was  general  hesitation  about  making  the  supreme 
venture.  But,  behold,  now  in  this  the  hour  of  their 
helplessness,  and  as  if  to  mock  the  extreme  lack  of 
material  resources,  it  came  to  pass  that,  without  warning, 
they  found  themselves  caught  in  a  corner  and  compelled 
to  act.  Either  the  signal  to  advance  immediately  must 
be  raised,  or  else  the  fact  be  published  that  they  had  no 
courage  or  confidence  in  the  divine  promise.  For  word 
was  brought  from  Philadelphia  that  in  a  few  days  a  ves- 
sel bound  for  India  would  sail  from  that  city,  in  which 
the  missionaries  might  take  passage,  an  opportunity  not 
likely  to  occur  again  for  a  period  indefinitely  long. 
Then  a  little  later  came  intelligence  that  about  the  same 
date  and  for  the  same  region  another  ship  would  set 
forth  from  Salem.  With  this  golden  opportunity  for 
making  the  voyage  on  hand,  and  with  four  men  ready 
and  waiting,  most  eager  and  urgent  to  be  sent  forth, 
what  should  be  done  ?  But,  to  add  to  the  already  sore 
perplexity,  what  should  happen  but  that  a  fifth  petitioner 
appears  in  the  person  of  Rice,  importunate  to  be  or- 
dained and  despatched  with  the  others  !  The  mettle  of 
the  committee  rose  most  grandly  to  the  height  of  the 
momentous  occasion,  and  they  determined  to  make  the 
venture,  and  take  the  risk.  Mingling  discretion  with 
valor  however,  it  was  stipulated  that  Rice  should  secure 
for  himself  the  wherewith  for  his  outfit  and  passage  to 
the  field ;  it  was  suggested  that  the  four  wives  would  bet- 
ter be  left  behind  for  a  season  in  order  to  reduce  expen- 
ses to  a  minimum,  and  further  it  was  intimated  that  if 
the  worst  befell,  a  portion  of  the  number,  or  even  all, 


1 10  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

might  be  transferred  to  the  London  Society.  Nor  did 
the  outcome  fail  superabundantly  to  justify  this  notable 
act  of  faith.  A  ringing  call  for  the  money  required  was 
issued  straightway,  and  arrangements  were  set  on  foot 
for  the  ordination  services.  Fortunately,  too,  the  date  of 
sailing  was  postponed  for  a  fortnight.  And  now  enthu- 
siasm began  to  rise  in  fine  fashion.  So  many  hearts  were 
opened,  and  so  great  was  the  eagerness  to  give,  that  by 
the  end  of  the  three  weeks  more  than  $6000  were  in 
hand,  Philadelphia  alone  contributing  more  than  $1000. 
Thus  it  became  possible  for  all  to  depart,  the  wives  in- 
cluded, and  with  salaries  paid  for  a  year  and  a  half  in 
advance  !  On  February  ipth,  1812,  Judson  and  Newell 
sailed  from  Salem,  and  on  the  22nd,  Hall,  Rice  and 
Nott  followed  from  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love.  As  the 
event  soon  proved,  this  beginning  was  made  in  the  very 
nick  of  time,  for  in  June  war  was  declared  against  Great 
Britain,  and  thus  for  years  communication  with  the  East 
was  practically  closed.  Moreover,  as  if  to  reward  the 
Prudential  Committee  for  their  course,  a  bequest  of 
$30,000  to  the  Board  was  presently  announced. 

The  instructions  drawn  up  in  haste  for  the  guidance 
of  these  pioneer  American  missionaries,  though  on  the 
whole  surprisingly  wise,  both  in  what  they  contained, 
and  in  what  they  omitted,  have  yet  some  passages  which 
read  strangely  in  the  light  of  what  by  experience  has 
since  been  taught.  Thus,  taking  the  hint  from  Carey, 
they  were  enjoined  to  adopt  as  soon  as  possible  "  some 
plan  of  polity  or  social  order,"  that  is,  a  sort  of  family 
or  communistic  arrangement,  such  as  the  disciples 
entered  into  just  after  Pentecost.  And  still  further,  "  to 
lighten  expenses,  apply  yourselves  to  the  most  eligible 
ways  and  means  of  support,  agreeable  to  the  example  of 


THE   GENESIS   OF   MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  Ill 

the  English  missionaries,  and  even  of  the  apostles." 
For,  the  ruling  idea  then  was  that  the  stock  of  the 
Lord's  money  was  so  limited  that  only  sufficient  could 
be  counted  on  to  transport  the  missionaries  to  the  scene 
of  their  labors,  and  to  sustain  them  until  a  foothold 
could  be  gained,  and  that  after  that  they  must  rely,  at 
least  largely,  upon  their  own  resources.  But  a  few  years 
were  sufficient  to  demonstrate  that  neither  of  those 
methods  of  procedure  were  called  for,  or  could  be 
profitably  reduced  to  practice.  Moreover,  in  those  days 
primeval,  as  well  as  for  more  than  a  generation  later,  the 
conviction  was  prevalent  that  to  send  women  to  coun- 
tries heathen  and  savage  was  of  more  than  doubtful  pro- 
priety. Not  only  was  the  matter  of  delicacy,  modesty, 
and  even  of  greatest  danger  of  gross  ill-treatment  in- 
volved, but  since  they  could  not  help  in  the  work  of 
evangelization,  they  would  prove  a  serious  encumbrance  ! 
But  somehow  it  has  happened  that  to  this  day,  and  in 
numbers  increasing  at  a  most  astonishing  rate,  the  weaker 
sex  has  contrived  to  get  itself  commissioned  of  both 
God  and  men  to  proclaim  the  glad  tidings  in  darkest 
and  vilest  lands. 

Ever  since  the  organization  of  the  Board  the  burning 
questions  had  been,  first,  concerning  finances,  and 
second,  concerning  the  most  eligible  location  for 
missions.  The  bulk  of  the  vast  world  was  yet  unknown, 
and  much  of  the  remainder  was  inaccessible.  During 
the  early  conferences  of  the  student  originators,  "  some- 
times we  would  cut  a  path  through  the  moral  wilderness 
of  the  West  to  the  Pacific  and  sometimes  to  South  Amer- 
ica, the  object  always  being  the  salvation  of  the  heathen." 
The  London  Society  suggested  the  Indian  tribes  of 
America  and  "  Hindoostan."  For  long  months  the  com- 


II*  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

mittee  had  waited  for  the  rising  and  moving  of  the  pillar 
of  fire.  In  18x1  they  reported  that  "  scarcely  any  portion 
of  the  world  is  more  important  and  inviting  than  Burmah," 
and  that  "providence  points  to  Canada  and  the  Caghna- 
waga  tribe ;"  to  the  latter  since  they  know  of  a  pious  native 
who  longs  to  carry  the  gospel  to  his  people,  and  is 
getting  an  education  for  the  purpose.  But  the  war  with 
Britain  closed  the  door  of  entrance  in  that  direction. 
India  was  looked  upon  with  favor,  and  was  finally 
selected  because  of  the  presence  there  of  Carey  and  his 
associates,  though  Burma,  being  outside  of  the  domain 
of  the  crotchety  and  jaundiced  East  India  Company, 
seemed  to  be  a  more  desirable  field. 

When,  in  February  of  1812,  the  grand  stroke  for  the 
founding  of  a  mission  was  heralded  by  the  sailing  of  the 
first  five  men  for  southern  Asia,  this  is  the  language 
employed  in  reference  thereto :  ' '  The  magnitude  of  the 
event,  if  estimated  by  the  probable  consequences,  is  such 
as  to  form  an  era  in  the  history  of  the  American 
churches,  though  the  immediate  consequences  may  be 
such  as  to  disappoint " — words  profoundly  wise,  and  pro- 
phetic as  well.  Up  to  this  point  the  work  had  been  only 
that  of  putting  the  hand  to  the  plow,  and  next  were  to 
follow  long  and  wearisome  years  of  painful  seed-sowing, 
and  anxious  waiting  for  the  harvest.  Just  ahead,  though 
mercifully  wholly  hidden,  were  in  store  disheartening 
struggles  against  obstacles  numerous,  multiform,  and 
well  nigh  insuperable.  The  very  first  message  which 
was  received  from  the  missionaries  was  to  the  effect  that 
by  the  despotic  and  gospel-hating  Company  they  had 
been  ordered  to  leave  the  country  at  once ;  and  the 
next,  in  some  respects  even  more  alarming,  was  that 
two  out  of  the  five,  Judson  and  Rice,  had  withdrawn 


THE  GENESIS   OF   MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  113 

from  the  service  of  the  Board,  had  gone  over  to  the 
Baptists,  and  had  been  immersed.  As  was  quite  nat- 
ural, the  surprise  and  consternation  which  followed  this 
radical  revolution  in  sentiment  was  not  unmingled  with 
indignation  and  disgust,  though  on  the  whole,  the 
humiliating  set-back  was  borne  with  commendable  for- 
bearance and  resignation.  These  words  with  reference 
to  it  appear  in  the  next  annual  report :  "  The  committee 
has  no  disposition  to  impeach  the  sincerity  of  these 
men,  but  they  regret  that  the  subject  was  not  examined 
before  so  late  a  day.  Nevertheless,  the  foundation  of 
God  standeth  sure.  We  repose  our  hopes  on  this  in 
spite  of  the  instability  which  we  regret  to  record,  but 
against  which  no  human  foresight  could  provide.  Let 
it  rouse  a  holy  zeal ;  and  should  it  be  overruled  and 
bring  an  accession  of  strength,  it  will  be  a  joyful  event." 
Yes,  overruled,  and  nobody  now  doubts  that  thus  it  soon 
came  to  pass. 

In  noting  the  most  impressive  series  of  additional 
afflictive  providences  which  ensued,  we  are  reminded  of 
the  case  of  the  London  Society  during  the  dark  days 
after  the  Duff  wzs  captured.  After  a  voyage  of  four 
months,  Judson  and  Newell  had  arrived  at  Calcutta,  June 
1 7th,  1812.  At  once  an  order  was  served  upon  them 
to  return  to  America  in  the  ship  that  brought  them 
thither,  nor  without  them  would  the  Caravan  be  per- 
mitted to  sail.  Later  it  was  concluded  that  they  might 
take  their  departure  for  any  region  not  within  the 
Company's  jurisdiction.  Presently  information  was  re- 
ceived which  "  decisively  deterred  "  them  from  entering 
Burma;  and  as  no  door  either  open,  or  likely  to  open, 
appeared  in  that  direction,  at  their  wits'  end,  their  eyes 
were  turned  westward  towards  Bombay,  and  possibly 


114  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

Africa.  On  August  4th,  Newell  and  his  wife  took  pas- 
sage in  a  vessel  which  could  accomodate  but  two,  leaving 
the  Judsons  to  follow  when  they  could.  And,  behold, 
only  four  days  after,  the  Harmony  arrived,  bringing 
Hall,  Nott  and  Rice.  They  too  were  bidden  by  the 
authorities  to  be  off  at  the  soonest.  A  passport  was  there- 
fore procured  from  the  police  by  the  two  former,  passage 
was  engaged  and  their  belongings  were  on  board,  when 
an  order  came  for  them  to  depart  for  England  in  the 
fleet  about  to  sail ;  but,  notwithstanding,  they  went  on 
board  the  vessel  they  had  chosen  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  officers  and  made  their  escape.  Judson  had 
already  been  baptized  in  Serampore,  and  Rice  put  him- 
self into  the  same  company  a  few  weeks  later.  Mean- 
while the  Newells  were  enduring  wave  upon  wave  of 
trouble  and  sorrow.  For  a  month  they  were  beaten  up 
and  down  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  Mrs.  Newell  being  very 
sick  of  a  fever,  and  then  in  distress  the  ship  put  in  at 
Coringa,  and  lay  for  a  fortnight.  It  was  November 
before  they  reached  the  Isle  of  France,  and  on  the  last 
day  of  that  month  this  heroic  soul  breathed  her  last. 
As  the  event  proved,  it  was  thus  that  she  accomplished 
far  more  for  the  cause  for  which  she  exultingly  laid  down 
her  life,  than  would  have  been  possible  by  the  longest 
term  of  most  devoted  service. 

After  a  voyage  of  eleven  weeks,  on  February  nth, 
almost  a  full  year  since  leaving  their  native  land,  Hall 
and  Nott  landed  in  Bombay.  But  knowledge  of  their 
movements  had  preceded  them  thither,  and  they  were 
met  with  a  command  to  depart  forthwith  for  England. 
Appealing  to  Governor  Nepean,  fortunately  a  man 
large-hearted  and  thoroughly  Christian,  he  promised  to 
do  the  best  possible  in  their  behalf,  and  wrote  privately 


THE  GENESIS  OF  MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  115 

to  Calcutta  to  intercede  for  them.  They  began  at  once 
to  study  the  language.  To  greatly  increase  the  complica- 
tion, just  now  arrived  the  news  of  the  declaration  of  war 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States ;  for  as 
was  to  be  expected,  the  missionaries  became  objects  of  sus- 
picion as  possible  spies.  In  August  they  learned  that  their 
names  were  down  on  a  list  as  passengers  in  a  vessel 
which  was  to  have  sailed  at  once,  but  on  account  of  a 
leak  was  long  delayed.  In  September  they  asked  per- 
mission to  depart  for  Ceylon  where  Newell  now  was,  but 
consent  was  withheld.  A  few  weeks  later,  learning  that 
a  ship  was  to  start  in  a  few  hours  for  Cochin,  and  to  go 
thence  to  Ceylon,  they  went  on  board,  leaving  Mrs. 
Nott  behind,  and  a  letter  for  the  governor  explaining 
why  they  had  left  without  authority  from  him.  Delayed 
at  Cochin,  letters  arrived  ordering  them  to  be  returned 
to  Bombay.  On  December  22nd  they  must  certainly 
sail  for  England.  As  a  final  effort,  a  most  solemn 
memorial  was  addressed  to  Sir  Evan  Nepean  as  a  man 
and  a  Christian,  protesting  against  the  serious  offense  of 
deporting  them,  when  their  sole  object  in  coming  was 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  perishing  heathen.  But 
preparations  were  also  made  for  departure,  goods  were 
packed  and  labelled,  coolies  and  boats  were  engaged. 
About  to  set  forth,  the  captain  applied  at  the  pay-office 
for  their  passage-money,  and  it  was  refused ;  and  not 
long  after  came  a  message  granting  permission  to  remain 
in  the  city.  Newell  soon  joined  them,  after  ten  months 
in  Ceylon,  and  at  once  the  foundations  began  to  be  laid. 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Board,  held  in  Salem 
September  aoth,  1815,  in  the  sixth  annual  report,  this  is 
the  language  chosen  to  set  forth  most  fittingly  both  the 
achievements  hitherto  made  and  the  current  situation  : 


Il6  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

"The  last  two  reports  had  recitations  of  the  pilgrimages 
and  adventures,  perils  and  deliverances,  discouragements 
and  consolations  of  our  missionaries  in  the  East,  seeking 
a  door  of  entrance,  but  obstructed,  disappointed,  and 
in  continual  anxiety  and  suspense.  But  thus  have  been 
showed  the  faith  and  patience,  the  firmness  and  pru- 
dence, the  fortitude  and  devotedness  of  the  brethren, 
and  proofs,  affecting  and  animating,  of  the  wisdom  and 
goodness,  the  faithfulness  and  mercy,  the  almighty  pro- 
tection and  overruling  providence  of  God.  This  report 
has  less  striking  narrative  and  affecting  incident,  and 
because  they  have  found  an  open  door  and  a  resting 
place,  though  even  now  they  have  scarcely  commenced 
their  public  labors."  The  glad  announcement  was  also 
made  that,  after  three  years  of  war,  peace  had  returned. 
During  all  this  protracted  period  of  sore  trial,  so  well 
had  the  faith  and  patience  of  the  saints  at  home  endured, 
that  now,  a  brighter  day  having  dawned,  the  way  was 
open  for  an  enlargement  of  the  work.  Five  men,  who  had 
long  been  waiting  for  the  opportunity,  were  despatched, 
some  to  Bombay  to  reinforce  the  mission  there,  and  the 
others  to  Ceylon  to  break  ground  for  a  second  station. 
The  next  year,  various  hindrances  which  had  hitherto 
prevented,  having  been  removed,  a  mission  was  started 
among  the  Indians  of  northern  Georgia.  It  is  in  the 
annual  report  for  1817  that  for  the  first  time  several  dis- 
tinct fields  could  be  named.  The  information  is  given 
that  $2200  had  been  sent  to  Bombay  with  which  to  open 
schools,  and  that  a  house  of  worship  was  much  needed 
in  that  city.  In  Ceylon  the  government  had  granted 
the  use  of  certain  old  Roman  Catholic  churches,  with 
their  glebes  and  manses.  Among  the  Cherokees  Mr. 
Kingsbury  found  much  encouragement.  Also  a  mission 


THE  GENESIS   OF   MISSIONS   IN    AMERICA.  117 

school  had  been  founded  at  Cornwall,  Conn.  And  this 
significant  item  appeared  with  reference  to  the  first  mis- 
sion of  the  London  Society:  "The  late  glorious 
events  at  the  Society  Islands — particularly  at  Otaheite 
and  Eimeo — make  our  hearts  burn  with  desire  to  wit- 
ness the  same  triumphs  of  the  cross  at  Owyhee  and 
Woahu  [Hawaii  and  Oahu].  From  all  accounts  this 
field  is  white  for  the  harvest." 

In  1819  details  are  given  concerning  no  less  than 
seven  missions ;  Bombay,  Ceylon,  Palestine,  among  the 
Cherokees,  the  Choctaws,  the  Indians  of  Arkansas,  and 
in  the  Sandwich  Islands.  And  behold,  what  God  had 
wrought  in  so  brief  a  space.  "The  first,  only  six  years 
ago,  was  struggling  for  a  place  and  even  for  existence,  the 
last  just  ready  to  embark,  and  in  all  extending  from  east 
to  west  more  than  two-thirds  around  the  globe."  In  the 
north  Pacific  the  way  of  entrance  had  been  wondrously 
prepared  by  the  advent  into  this  country  of  Obookiah, 
his  ^«<«/-adoption  by  Mills,  his  conversion  and  educa- 
tion with  other  Hawaiian  youths  at  Cornwall,  and  their 
letters  home  telling  of  the  Christian  faith;  and  perhaps 
even  more,  by  the  news  carried  by  sailors  that  the  idols 
had  been  cast  out  in  Otaheite,  as  well  as  by  the  return  of 
certain  Hawaiians  after  their  conversion  in  the  Society  Is- 
lands. It  was  a  memorable  event  in  the  history  of  the 
American  Board  when,  in  1819,  Bingham  and  Thurston 
and  twenty  others — by  far  the  largest  missionary  family 
that  had  yet  been  gathered  and  sent  forth  at  one  time — 
set  sail  in  the  brig  Thaddcus,  bound  via  Cape  Horn  for 
the  remote  recesses  of  the  Western  Sea,  to  proclaim  to 
the  perishing  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  But 
little  came  directly  from  the  projected  mission  to  the 
Holy  Land,  from  which  so  much  was  fondly  anticipated, 


Il8  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

and  about  which  had  gathered  so  much  of  enthusiasm 
and  fine  religious  sentiment ;  though  indirectly  and 
more  remotely  it  led  to  the  opening  of  the  Board's  most 
important  work  among  the  Oriental  churches  of  the 
Turkish  Empire,  which  now  consumes  one-third  of  its 
income,  and  embraces  one-third  of  its  converts.  ' '  So 
Messrs.  Parsons  and  Fisk  were  chosen,  and  sent  upon 
an  extensive  tour  among  the  churches  as  missionaries  to 
Jerusalem,  whereby  a  wide  and  lively  interest  was  ex- 
cited, and  a  distinguished  liberality  of  contributions  was 
the  result." 

In  1820,  after  ten  years  of  most  careful  planning  and 
most  arduous  toil,  this  is  the  summing  up  of  tangible 
results.  The  cost  in  money  had  reached  nearly  $200,- 
ooo.  From  $1000,  the  receipts  of  the  first  year,  the 
annual  income  rose  to  $12,266  in  1814;  fell  to  $9494 
the  year  after,  on  account  of  the  war,  and  then  climbed 
steadily  to  $37,521  in  1819.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
decade  in  all  no  missionaries  had  been  appointed,  of 
whom  62  were  men ;  and  of  the  88  still  in  service,  or 
on  the  way  to  their  fields,  28  were  men  ordained.  Of 
the  entire  force  44  were  laboring  among  the  Indians,  25 
were  in  the  East,  1 7  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  2  in 
western  Asia.  As  to  fruit-gathering,  even  yet  the  re- 
port is:  "  We  cannot  reckon  up  much  of  tangible  re- 
sults." The  years  following  were  devoted  almost 
wholly  to  the  development  of  fields  already  occupied, 
rather  that  to  the  founding  of  additional  missions. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  dwelling  upon  the  evangelistic 
designs  and  doings  of  the  American  Board  and  the 
New  England  Congregationalists.  And  the  fact  is  that 
for  a  number  of  years  the  bulk  both  of  money  and  men, 
was  derived  from  the  children  of  the  Pilgrims.  Wil- 


THE  GENESIS   OF  MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  119 

liams  College,  Andover  Seminary,  and  Massachusetts 
General  Association,  were  called  of  Providence  to 
play  the  foremost  part  in  arousing  and  organizing  the 
forces  which  laid  the  foundations,  and  began  to  rear  the 
superstructure,  of  American  missions.  It  was  from  ac- 
cident however,  rather  than  from  deliberate  design, 
was  the  result  of  circumstances,  that  of  the  first  eight 
commissioners  chosen,  five  were  from  Massachusetts,  and 
the  others  were  from  Connecticut.  But  no  statement  of 
the  origin  and  growth  of  missions  in  the  United  States 
would  be  at  all  complete,  which  did  not  make  mention 
of  the  hearty  sympathy  and  generous  co-operation  of 
various  other  denominations,  and  as  well  as  of  other  mis- 
sionary societies  to  which,  directly  or  indirectly,  the 
work  of  the  Board  gave  rise.  We  have  already  seen 
what  liberal  contributions  were  bestowed  by  the  Phila- 
delphia Presbyterians  when  the  first  men  were  sent  out 
in  1812.  The  same  year  by  the  secretary  the  General 
Assembly  was  invited  to  form  a  similar  society  to  co-op- 
erate with  the  Board ;  but  that  body  in  reply  expressed 
the  conviction  that  foreign  missions  would  be  best 
served  by  a  single  organization,  and  added  that  "their 
churches  rejoiced  in  the  American  Board  and  would 
sustain  it  to  the  best  of  their  ability."  And  for  a  gen- 
eration that  pledge  was  kept.  It  was  not  until  1837 
that  the  Old  School  branch  began  to  establish  missions, 
while  the  other  branch  remained  in  closest  connection 
down  to  1870.  In  order  to  secure  increased  denomi- 
national comprehensiveness,  at  the  second  annual  meet- 
ing an  addition  of  thirteen  commissioners  was  made 
to  the  corporation,  of  whom  eight  were  Presbyterians. 
In  1832,  out  of  sixty-two  corporate  members,  tc«rty-one 
were  Presbyterians,  twenty-four  were  Congregaujnalists, 


I2O  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

six  were  (Dutch)  Reformed,  and  one  was  Associate 
Reformed,  and  the  missionaries  were  ordinarily  chosen 
in  about  the  same  proportion.  The  German  Reformed 
Church  also  assisted  regularly  with  money-gifts  for 
twenty-five  years  (1840-65.)  The  (Dutch)  Reformed 
did  not  withdraw  until  1857. 

Especial  mention  must  be  made  of  the  second  organ- 
ized movement  started  in  this  country,  whose  beginning 
constitutes  one  of  the  very  strangest  passages  in  mission 
history.  This  society  came  into  existence  through 
what  seemed  to  multitudes  to  be  a  piece  of  human 
frailty.  Out  of  disappointment  and  sorrow,  out  of  ap- 
parent failure  and  disaster,  issued  almost  unparalleled 
success  and  enlargement  to  the  kingdom.  It  was  evi- 
dently the  Lord's  doing,  and  even  yet  is  marvelous  in 
our  eyes.  Of  course  the  reference  is  to  the  famous 
change  of  opinion  with  regard  to  baptism  on  the  part  of 
Judson  and  Rice,  soon  after  they  had  reached  India. 
We  have  already  seen  what  impression  that  revolution 
in  sentiment  made  upon  the  Prudential  Committee.  In 
their  astonishment  and  deep  perplexity  over  it  Hall 
and  Nott  wrote  home  as  follows:  "What  the  Lord 
means  by  thus  dividing  us  in  sentiment  and  separating 
us  from  each  other  we  cannot  tell.  The  Lord  seeth  not 
as  man  seeth,  and  it  ill  becomes  us  to  be  dissatisfied 
with  what  he  does.  We  hope  and  pray  that  it  will  not 
damp  the  missionary  spirit,  but  that  it  may  burn  with 
a  brighter  and  purer  flame."  That  hope  was  well 
founded,  and  that  prayer  was  not  unheard.  The  work 
already  begun  in  America  was  not  weakened  in  the  least, 
except  for  a  very  brief  season  of  dismay,  while  pres- 
ently, as  the  direct  result,  an  entire  denomination  was 
lairly  set  on  fire  with  zeal  for  the  world's  evangelization, 


THE  GENESIS   OF   MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  131 

and  ever  since  has  maintained  the  impulse  then  received. 
So  that  among  the  fruits  of  that  stupendous  "failure" 
we  are  to  reckon  the  almost  unmatched  victories  of  the 
gospel  over  heathenism  among  the  Karens  in  Burma, 
and  in  our  day  also  among  the  Telugus  of  eastern  India ! 
As  soon  as  the  decisive  step  had  been  taken,  the  two 
chief  actors  therein  wrote  to  the  American  Baptists  of 
what  had  come  to  pass.  Carey  also  wrote,  and  their 
letters  all  reached  Boston  by  the  same  mail  in  February 
of  1813.  Before  he  left,  with  not  the  least  thought 
that  it  would  ever  be  of  any  personal  concern  to  himself, 
Judson  had  suggested  the  formation  of  a  Baptist  society, 
but  nothing  came  of  the  counsel.  But  now  all  of  a 
sudden,  unsought,  undesired,  unlocked  for,  they  find 
two  missionaries  in  the  foreign  field,  who  at  terrible 
cost  had  joined  their  fellowship,  and  were  fairly  thrust 
upon  them  for  support.  Here  were  straits  even  greater 
and  more  embarrassing  than  those  in  which  the  Amer- 
ican Board  had  found  itself  with  five  men  on  its  hands 
and  an  empty  treasury.  Here  also  moreover  was  a 
question  without  a  negative  possible,  save  one  which 
involved  disgrace  and  almost  infamy.  Hence  as  might 
be  expected,  a  local  organization  was  formed  without 
delay,  and  circulars  were  sent  out  looking  to  a  gathering 
which  should  be  national  in  its  proportions,  and  thus 
unite  the  entire  denomination,  a  consummation  which 
as  yet  had  never  been  achieved  for  any  purpose  what- 
soever. The  proposition  was  made  to  the  Baptist  Society 
in  England  (America  still  fearing  to  undertake  to  walk 
alone,  and  much  inclined  to  lean  upon  the  strong  arm 
of  Britain)  to  receive  the  two  men  into  its  India  mis- 
sion, their  support  to  be  supplied  from  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic  ;  but  the  sagacious  Fuller  wrote  in  reply,  and 


122  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

exceedingly  fortunate  for  the  Lord's  work  in  all  the 
world:  "Late  events  point  to  the  origin  of  a  distinct 
Baptist  society  in  America."  Concerning  the  outcome 
the  following  has  been  written :  ' '  The  intelligence 
[concerning  Judson  and  Rice]  spread  with  electric  ra- 
pidity, and  gave  to  benevolence  and  Christian  obligation 
a  depth  and  fervor  never  before  experienced.  One  sen- 
timent of  deep  thanksgiving  prevailed.  The  providence 
was  too  plain  to  be  mistaken.  The  way  had  been 
opened,  the  field  had  been  prepared,  and  the  true- 
hearted  must  enter  and  prosecute  that  to  which  they  had 
been  summoned."  In  May,  1814,  a  preliminary  assem- 
bly was  held  in  Philadelphia,  attended  by  twenty-six 
ministers  and  seven  laymen,  representing  eleven  states 
and  the  District  of  Columbia.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  establish  the  General  Convention  of  the  Baptist 
Denomination  in  the  United  States  of  America  for 
Foreign  Missions  [and  as  if  not  satisfied  with  the  length 
of  this  name,  in  1821  were  added  the  words,]  "  and  other 
important  objects  relating  to  the  Redeemer's  kingdom." 
In  1845  the  name  was  changed  to  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union.  Much  fuel  was  added  to  the  flame 
when,  in  September,  Rice  reached  home  and  straight- 
way began  to  tell  what  marvelous  things  he  had  seen 
and  heard.  ' '  Here  was  one  who  had  actually  stood 
among  the  temples  of  heathendom  and  beheld  the  cruel 
abominations,"  something  almost  outside  of  the  expe- 
rience of  most  men  in  that  early  day.  His  was  an 
imagination  most  ardent,  and  his  pictures  were  painted 
in  colors  most  vivid.  "  He  reproduced  the  rapt  predic- 
tions of  the  prophets  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
and  the  thrilling  exhortations  of  the  apostles  concerning 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  multitudes  hung  on  his  lips 


THE  GENESIS   OF   MISSIONS  IN   AMERICA.  123 

and  followed  his  footsteps  with  an  enthusiasm  seldom 
known  since  Whitefield."  Nothing  could  withstand  the 
swelling  tide  of  zeal  which  now  set  in.  For  the  time  at 
least,  before  it  indifference  and  prejudice  were  com- 
pletely swept  away. 

And  what  of  Judson  meanwhile  ?  For  months  with  no 
human  arm  to  lean  upon,  but  with  unswerving  confi- 
dence in  the  protection  and  guidance  of  his  unseen 
Master,  he  looked  forward  wholly  bent  upon  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  work  to  which  he  had  been  called. 
Ordered  to  depart  for  England  by  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, he  yet  managed  by  a  remarkable  train  of  circum- 
stances to  escape  to  a  ship  bound  for  the  Isle  of  France; 
after  three  months  he  returned  to  Madras,  was  immedi- 
ately refused  permission  to  remain,  and  as  the  only 
resort  took  passage  in  a  vessel  with  Burma  for  its  desti- 
nation. And  thus  it  came  about  that  July  i4th,  1813, 
some  seventeen  months  after  his  departure  from  the  New 
World,  he  was  landed  at  Rangoon,  in  a  region  to  which 
he  had  originally  been  assigned,  but  into  which  while 
in  Calcutta  the  door  of  entrance  seemed  to  be  hopelessly 
closed.  Here,  just  on  the  threshold  of  his  distinguished 
career,  it  is  necessary  to  leave  him  for  the  present,  the 
story  all  untold  of  the  years  of  incredible  toils  and 
perils,  sufferings  and  afflictions,  as  well  as  the  surprising 
successes,  which  even  in  his  lifetime  began  to  appear. 
His  name  will  ever  stand  high  in  the  illustrious  list  of 
Christian  heroes. 

Only  the  briefest  mention  can  well  be  made  of  the 
missionary  operations  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  whose  first  representative  did  not  reach  the 
foreign  field  until  1833.  From  the  outset  this  had  been 
eminently  an  evangelizing  body,  and  had  been  unsur- 


124  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

passed  in  efforts  to  plant  Christian  institutions  at  every 
point  throughout  the  boundless,  and  ever-shifting,  and 
appallingly  needy  frontier  of  this  rising  Republic.  And 
therefore  not  improperly  work  for  the  heathen  at 
home  took  precedence.  In  the  call  to  this  is  seen  a 
peculiar  ordering  of  providence,  which  lends  to  the 
narrative  an  element  of  romance.  As  so  often  happens, 
it  was  but  a  plebeian  and  commonplace  incident,  a  mere 
accident,  that  started  a  movement  of  first-class  import- 
ance. At  Marietta,  O.,  a  drunken  negro,  Stewart  by 
name,  while  in  the  desperation  of  shame  and  remorse  on 
his  way  to  drown  himself,  was  arrested  by  the  voice  of 
a  Methodist  preacher  calling  sinners  to  repentance  and 
promising  salvation.  By  the  sermon  he  was  converted, 
and  not  long  after,  in  a  vision,  as  he  stoutly  held,  was 
divinely  bidden  to  set  forth  westward  and  northward  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  perishing.  Making  his  journey 
through  the  forest,  he  at  length  appeared  among  the 
pagan  and  savage  Wyandots  upon  the  upper  Sandusky 
River.  A  revival  ensued,  assistance  was  sent,  the 
mission  was  continued,  and  later,  the  facts  coming  to 
the  knowledge  of  Nathan  Bangs  and  others  in  New 
York,  their  hearts  were  so  stirred  that  they  proceeded  to 
set  up  an  organization  which  should  systematize  and 
develop  the  work  of  missions  at  home  and  abroad.  This 
important  step  was  taken  in  1819.  It  was  nineteen 
years  later  that  Melville  D.  Cox  was  appointed  mission- 
ary to  Monrovia  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  The 
career  of  this  first  of  American  Methodists  to  bear  the 
message  of  salvation  to  distant  lands  was  exceedingly 
brief.  Reaching  his  destination  March  yth,  on  the  zist 
of  July  following  he  breathed  his  last,  falling  a  victim  to 
the  terrible  African  fever,  but  not  until  he  had  uttered 


THE  GENESIS  OF  MISSIONS   IN   AMERICA.  125 

that  ringing  challenge  to  Christendom,  whose  echo  has 
not  yet  in  the  least  died  away :  ' '  Let  a  thousand  fall 
before  Africa  be  given  up  !  " 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  was  the  next  to 
organize.  As  early  as  1817  the  English  Church 
Missionary  Society  (Britain  again  lending  a  missionary 
impulse  to  America)  had  urged  the  founding  of  an 
organization  here,  and  in  1820  the  Domestic  and  For- 
eign Missionary  Society  came  into  being.  But  it  was 
not  until  ten  years  later  that  missionaries  were  sent  out, 
when  two  were  despatched  to  Greece,  and  five  years 
later  still  that  the  mission  to  China  was  opened.  The 
Free  (Will)  Baptists  commenced  work  in  eastern  India 
in  1833,  the  Lutherans  (General  Synod)  sent  a  repre- 
sentative to  the  same  country  in  1841,  the  Southern 
Baptists  set  up  for  themselves  in  1845,  an^  l^e  Southern 
Methodists  the  year  following,  while  the  work  of  the 
United  Presbyterians  dates  from  1858.  One  after 
another  the  various  denominations  have  fallen  into  line, 
until  almost  every  one  of  any  considerable  strength  has 
begun  to  heed  the  command,  Preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature.  And  at  length  it  has  come,  or  is  rapidly 
coming,  to  this,  that  the  supreme  test  of  loyalty  to 
Christ  is  found  in  the  answer  to  the  searching  question : 
How  abundant  in  labors,  how  liberal  in  giving,  how 
earnest  in  prayer,  is  the  individual,  or  the  church,  or 
the  denomination,  for  the  redemption  of  the  world  ? 


CHAPTER  XH. 

THE  PHENOMENON  OF  MISSIONARY  EXPANSION. 

THE  chapters  just  preceding  have  presented  in  outline 
the  narrative  of  the  remarkable  revival  of  missionary 
zeal  which  occurred  during  the  three  decades  immedi- 
ately following  the  organization  of  the  Baptist  Mission- 
ary Society  in  England,  and  the  sailing  of  Carey  to  be- 
gin the  final  assault  upon  heathenism  in  the  vast  penin- 
sula of  southern  Asia.  And  what  astounding  progress 
has  since  then  been  made,  and  how  utterly  changed  is 
the  outlook  to-day.  The  contrast  is  exceedingly  striking 
at  every  point,  and  is  full  to  overflowing  of  good  cheer 
and  ground  for  hope  in  years  to  come.  It  will  be  well 
to  note  next,  some  of  the  forces  which  have  wrought 
mightily  for  the  furtherance  of  world-wide  evangelistic 
efforts  during  the  passing  century,  taking  these  as  speci- 
mens of  the  encouragement  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard 
has  vouchsafed  to  his  servants  who  have  been  enduring 
the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day.  But  meanwhile,  bear- 
ing in  mind  that  at  the  best,  the  last  hundred  years  have 
been  in  the  main  for  missions  only  a  period  of  explora- 
tion and  pioneering,  of  laying  foundations  and  trying 
experiments,  of  gaining  experience,  and  fashioning 
needed  instrumentalities  for  securing  the  best  and  most 
enduring  results.  Languages  by  the  hundred  have  been 
learned  and  reduced  to  writing,  and  into  them  the 
Scriptures  have  been  translated  and  a  host  of  other  books, 
so  creating  from  nothing  a  Christian  literature.  Buildings 

126 


THE  PHENOMENON  OF  MISSIONARY   EXPANSION.     127 

of  all  sorts  have  been  constructed,  and  all  manner  of  in- 
stitutions, educational,  social  and  religious,  have  been 
planned  and  brought  into  being ;  all  of  which  are  of  the 
greatest  possible  value,  and  indeed  indispensable  to  the 
solid  prosperity  of  the  kingdom.  Then  several  genera- 
tions, taken  out  of  the  depths  of  pagan  degradation, 
have  been  trained  up  into  Christian  intelligence  and 
virtue,  Christian  customs,  ideas  and  tastes.  Christian 
homes  by  the  ten  thousand  have  been  created,  and  an 
army  of  native  preachers,  pastors,  evangelists,  bible- 
readers  and  teachers  have  been  enlisted,  drilled  and  in- 
troduced into  their  work.  And  best  of  all,  some  mil- 
lions of  converts  have  been  taught  to  adorn  the  gospel  in 
all  things  by  godly  characters  and  lives.  Such  prelim 
inary  and  preparatory  work  is  necessarily  of  the  hard- 
est, slowest  and  most  discouraging  kind,  but  it  needs 
not  to  be  repeated,  and  answers  for  all  time.  We  are  to 
count  this  century  then  as  more  especially  one  of  seed- 
sowing.  From  Carey's  day  to  the  present  the  earnest- 
hearted  have  labored  thus,  while  those  who  come  after 
will  enter  into  their  labors  and  reap  the  glorious  harvest 
with  songs  of  rejoicing. 

Thus  viewed,  the  achievements  already  made,  though 
as  nothing  compared  with  what  remains  to  be  done,  are  yet 
of  surprising  magnitude,  multitude,  and  variety.  Then 
missions  had  been  planted  almost  nowhere,  now  they  are 
to  be  found  almost  everywhere.  The  countries  which 
are  altogether  unoccupied  are  rare  exceptions.  From 
numbering  a  few  scores,  the  stations  and  out-stations 
have  gone  on  steadily  increasing  until  now  more  than 
25,000  can  be  named  (not  aiming  at  exact  figures,  but 
endeavoring  to  keep  carefully  within  the  limits  of  fact), 
and  each  one  a  blessed  center  of  gospel  light  and  joy. 


128  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

Not  counting  the  hundreds  who  have  died  at  their  posts, 
there  are  yet  living  and  in  the  midst  of  their  toil  a  host 
of  10,000  men  sent  forth  from  Christian  lands,  of  whom 
some  6,000  are  ordained.  And  to  these  are  to  be  added 
8,000  women,  including  some  3,800  who  are  unmarried 
and  filling  the  callings  of  zenana-workers,  physicians, 
teachers,  etc.  Associated  with  these  18,000  men  and 
women  from  Europe  and  America,  are  found  upwards 
of  75,000  native  Christian  "helpers,"  4,200  of  them 
ordained,  a  portion  of  the  Lord's  army  upon  whom 
more  and  more  the  task  of  winning  victories  and  hold- 
ing conquered  territory  is  to  fall.  A  total  evangelizing 
force  therefore  of  at  least  a  round  90,000  is  in  the  field, 
and  practically  all  raised  up  since  the  century  began. 
As  to  contributions  of  money  to  sustain  and  enlarge  the 
aggressive  campaign,  it  is  estimated  that  a  hundred  years 
ago  all  Christendom  was  giving  for  the  redemption  of  all 
heathendom  not  more  than  at  the  rate  of  $200,000  a 
year,  a  sum  which  is  more  than  quadrupled  by  the  in- 
come of  each  one  of  several  societies.  The  annual  re- 
ceipts now  reach  an  aggregate  of  more  than  $16,000,- 
ooo,  and  if  we  include,  as  we  properly  may,  the  receipts 
of  bible  societies,  tract  societies,  etc.,  with  the  cost  of 
training  missionaries  in  colleges  and  theological  semi- 
naries, the  amount  will  approximate  to  $20,000,000.  A 
miserable  pittance,  indeed,  as  compared  with  what  is 
needed  and  what  lies  within  the  ability  of  the  churches 
to  bestow,  but  nevertheless  indicating  a  marvelous  in- 
crease in  the  grace  of  giving  since  1792.  And  finally, 
as  to  results,  that  is,  such  as  can  be  expressed  by  fig- 
ures, though  these  are  likely  to  be  among  the  least.  Of 
adherents,  those  who  have  cast  away  their  idols  and  put 
themselves  under  the  teaching  of  the  missionaries,  there 


THE   PHENOMENON   OF  MISSIONARY    EXPANSION.     129 

are  upwards  of  4,000,000.  In  India  alone  according  to 
the  last  census  there  are  2,923,000.  No  account  is  taken 
of  at  least  as  many  more  who  are  halting  between  two 
opinions,  almost  persuaded  to  choose  Christ,  or  of  the  va- 
rious mass  movements  in  which  whole  regions  are  deeply 
stirred  religiously,  and  entire  villages  forsake  their  pagan 
temples  and  priests.  Dr.  Dennis  gives  the  number  of 
communicants  as  1,155,000.  In  addition,  the  20,000 
mission  schools  are  giving  a  Christian  education  to  over 
1,100,000  boys  and  girls. 

Now  this  exceedingly  rapid  development  of  missions 
really  constitutes  one  of  the  chief  phenomena  of  this 
century  of  wonders,  and  one  which  in  the  religious 
sphere  at  least  is  unapproached.  This  is  indeed  the 
century  of  missions  par  excellence.  No  other  phrase 
will  express  so  well,  so  much  of  what  is  best  and  most 
characteristic.  These  facts  so  inspiring  to  faith  and 
courage,  and  so  well  fitted  to  provoke  to  vigorous  en- 
deavor to  complete  the  work  so  grandly  begun,  have 
been  presented  just  here  mainly  because  they  supply  an 
excellent  introduction  to  a  discussion  as  to  how  it  hap- 
pened that  such  marvels  came  to  pass,  or  what  forces 
wrought  together  to  produce  such  wide-spread  and  mag- 
nificent results.  For  no  previous  hundred  years  can  be 
named  in  which  progress  so  varied,  and  on  such  a 
stupendous  scale,  would  have  been  possible.  It  is  pleas- 
ant to  discover  ample  evidence  at  every  step  that  the 
same  providence,  all-wise  and  almighty,  which  in 
Carey's  time,  and  before,  so  wondrously  opened  the 
pathway  for  a  beginning,  has  ever  since  been  equally 
busy  raising  up  in  every  sphere  auxiliaries  and  allies  al- 
most without  number,  that  in  our  day  the  whole  earth 
might  see  the  salvation  of  our  God. 


130  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

It  cannot  but  be  instructive  to  survey  the  general  his- 
tory of  the  period  in  search  for  changes  in  the  secular 
or  non-religious  realm  which  have  added  immensely  to 
the  volume  and  momentum  of  missionary  undertakings. 
Take  as  an  illustration  the  astounding  growth  of  the 
United  States  in  area,  population,  wealth,  intelligence 
and  spiritual  power.  A  century  ago  but  4,000,000,  all 
dwelling  east  of  the  Alleghenies  in  a  long,  narrow  strip 
bordering  upon  the  Atlantic,  but  now  increased  to  76,- 
000,000,  spreading  from  sea  to  sea,  occupying  the  con- 
tinent which  they  have  subdued,  and  easily  holding 
rank  among  the  foremost  of  nations.  Then  general 
chaos  prevailed.  Uncertainty,  dissatisfaction  and  weak- 
ness were  universal.  Our  institutions  were  all  in  feeble 
infancy,  the  Republic  was  no  more  than  a  novel  and 
astounding  experiment.  But  now,  in  both  church  and 
state,  the  fundamental  principles  then  introduced  with 
fear  and  trembling,  have  been  thoroughly  tested  and 
found  worthy  of  confidence,  better  than  the  most  en- 
thusiastic dared  to  hope.  And  what  if  this  nation  had 
been  omitted  from  history  ?  What  if  Britain  had  sub- 
dued the  colonies,  or  they  had  been  confined  to  their 
original  area,  or  by  secession  the  Union  had  been  hope- 
lessly rent  in  twain  ?  Who  can  doubt  that  among  the 
purposes  of  the  God  of  nations  in  prospering  the  work 
of  the  founders,  the  builders  and  the  defenders  was  this, 
that  in  the  New  World  might  be  gathered  and  developed 
instrumentalities,  which  in  due  season  might  be  wielded 
for  the  conversion  of  the  world.  In  the  same  category 
must  be  placed  the,  if  possible,  more  amazing  spread 
of  British  dominion  and  political  influence  into  every 
quarter  of  the  globe.  Take  the  two  nations  together, 
and  what  world-force  can  for  a  moment  compare  with 


THE  PHENOMENON  OF  MISSIONARY   EXPANSION.     131 

this  one  ?  The  Anglo-Saxon  is  the  supreme  colonizer, 
and  civilizer,  and  Christianizer  under  the  sun.  Prot- 
estant Britain  holds  political  sway  over  some  12,000,000 
square  miles  of  the  earth's  surface,  or  nearly  one-fourth 
of  all  the  land  area,  and  over  some  400,000,000  of  the 
human  family ;  or  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  entire 
race.  And  this  means,  among  other  things,  that  so  far 
and  wide,  at  least  a  beginning  has  been  made  in  es- 
tablishing good  laws,  good  order,  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  schools,  and  all  the  various  concomitants  of 
civilization,  and  that  steady  progress  will  ensue.  In 
aiding  in  the  spread  of  the  gospel  in  heathen  lands, 
pax  Brittanica  is  worth  ten -fold  more  than  pax  Romana 
ever  was  in  the  best  of  the  early  centuries.  What  if 
England  had  possessed  no  navy,  no  fleet  of  merchant 
vessels  sailing  every  sea,  and  opening  traffic  with  every 
nation  under  heaven  !  What  a  peculiar  providence  for 
the  furtherance  of  missions  is  connected  with  the" match- 
less results  flowing  from  English  commerce,  English 
conquest,  and  English  colonization.  Of  course,  of  the 
same  sort,  differing  only  in  degree,  are  the  setting  up 
of  the  Kongo  Free  State,  and  the  Partition  of  Africa 
with  its  numerous  "  protectorates "  and  "spheres  of 
influence." 

Or,  in  measuring  the  secular  forces,  the  non-religious 
factors  which  have  played  a  prominent  part  in  hastening 
the  glorious  day  of  redemption  for  the  race,  account 
must  be  taken  of  the  triumphs  of  modern  science,  of  dis- 
coveries and  inventions  too  numerous  even  to  mention. 
Recall  what  steam  has  done  for  travel  and  trade,  to 
quicken  intercourse  between  the  nations  by  bringing 
them  nearer  and  making  them  acquainted.  The  great 
ocean  steamships,  the  lines  of  trans-continental  rail- 


I3«  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

ways,  and  the  Suez  Canal  are  divinely  appointed  and 
invaluable  aids  in  proclaiming  at  the  soonest  to  every 
creature  the  saving  story  of  the  Cross.  How  much 
nearer  to  salvation  are  the  millions  of  India  since  the 
metaled  highways  and  railroads  were  there  constructed, 
since  the  telegraph  and  post-office  began  their  manifold 
ministries.  How  much  has  the  task  been  lightened  of 
going  into  all  the  world  since  Carey  endured  such  vexa- 
tions in  effecting  an  entrance  into  his  chosen  field, 
since  Vanderkemp  consumed  five  months  in  reaching  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  since  Duff  in  an  eight  months' 
voyage  suffered  shipwreck  three  times,  and  since  the 
first  missionaries  to  the  Sandwich  Islands  must  needs 
make  their  passage  in  a  brig,  and  via  Cape  Horn.  Mor- 
rison journeyed  to  China  by  way  of  New  York,  being 
tossed  about  for  three  months  upon  the  Atlantic,  and 
after  that  came  four  months  more  of  tedious  alternations  of 
dead  calm  and  tempest,  two  hundred  and  thirty  days  in 
all.  The  mission  ship  Duff  was  gone  two  years  on  her 
first  trip  to  carry  the  messengers  of  Christ  to  the  South 
Seas,  and  on  her  second  was  captured  by  a  French  priv- 
ateer. And  in  what  dreadful  isolation  were  the  first 
missionaries  compelled  to  spend  their  lives,  without  sym- 
pathy and  counsel,  thrown  almost  wholly  upon  their 
own  resources,  so  difficult,  so  expensive,  and  so  infre- 
quent was  communication. 

Nor  must  we  by  any  means  forget  the  remarkable  re- 
sults which  have  been  achieved  by  scores  and  hundreds 
of  explorers  in  all  lands.  A  century  ago  the  bulk  of  the 
world  was  utterly  unknown  to  civilized  men.  Africa, 
for  example,  the  second  of  continents  for  size,  had  been 
touched  only  upon  the  coast,  and  there  only  at  a  few 


THE  PHENOMENON   OF  MISSIONARY   EXPANSION.     133 

points.  Of  the  entire  interior  as  little  was  known  as  of 
the  surface  of  the  moon.  Mungo  Park  was  the  only 
modern  traveler  who  had  dared  to  undertake  to  pene- 
trate the  profound  darkness  (1795-1806),  and  had  lost 
his  life  somewhere  on  the  upper  Niger.  Not  much  prog- 
ress was  made  in  African  discovery  until  Livingstone 
in  1849,  only  fifty-four  years  ago,  struck  out  from  his 
mission  station  to  reach  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  then  re- 
crossed  to  the  Indian  Ocean.  Nor  was  it  until  his  life  work 
was  accomplished,  and  that  of  Stanley,  and  of  numerous 
other  courageous  and  venturesome  men,  that  the  Chris- 
tian churches  were  in  possession  of  knowledge  upon 
which  to  base  conviction  and  evangelistic  effort.  It  was 
Livingstone's  saying  that  "  the  end  of  discovery  is  the 
beginning  of  missions."  And  in  this  generation  troops 
of  missionaries  are  to  be  seen  pressing  into  the  Dark 
Continent  from  the  north,  the  south,  the  east  and  west, 
up  the  Nile  and  the  Niger,  the  Kongo,  and  the  Zambesi, 
and  the  Shire,  and  opening  stations  on  the  great  central 
lakes. 

Closed  doors  also  of  another  sort  have  been  won- 
drously  opened  since  the  century  began.  Multitudes  are 
yet  living  who  can  remember  the  strange  times  when 
among  the  chief  difficulties  was  that  of  finding  an  enter- 
ing place,  making  a  lodgment  for  the  gospel.  To  enter 
China,  Japan,  or  Korea,  was  to  face  certain  death.  In 
1840,  and  by  the  iniquities  and  desolations  of  the 
"Opium  War,"  five  Chinese  ports  were  opened  to  mis- 
sionary residence  and  activity,  and  only  since  1860, 
after  three  bloody  struggles  with  western  nations,  has  it 
been  lawful  to  preach  Christ  to  the  teeming  millions  of 
the  vast  interior.  It  was  in  1854,  under  the  persuasion 


134  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

of  Commodore  Perry's  cannon,  that  the  Sunrise  King, 
dom  began  to  unbar  her  gates,  and  after  the  revolution 
of  ten  years  later  followed  another  impulse  in  the  same 
direction,  while  the  "Hermit  Kingdom"  maintained 
her  exclusiveness  until  1882.  Already  the  story  seems 
incredible  that  for  twenty-seven  long  years  (1807-34) 
Morrison  watched,  waited,  and  prayed,  in  Canton  and 
Macao,  unable  to  hold  a  public  service,  preaching  Jesus 
to  congregations  of  half  a  dozen  or  less,  baptizing  only 
three  or  four,  and  so  dying  in  faith,  not  having  received 
the  promise.  And  that  for  eight  years  more  Milne,  and 
Giitzlaff,  and  Abeel,  hovered  cautiously  upon  the  coast, 
entering  the  bays  and  rivers  as  far  as  they  dared,  dis- 
tributing Christian  books  and  tracts,  and  in  Singapore 
and  Malacca  establishing  religious  services  and  schools 
for  the  large  Chinese  population  gathered  there,  hoping 
that  thus  in  this  around-about  fashion  the  empire  itself 
might  at  length  be  affected  in  some  measure.  Then 
during  much  of  the  same  period  India  was  practically 
shut  up  against  missionary  effort.  Just  before  Carey 
was  ready  to  set  forth  upon  his  venture,  the  East  India 
Company  had  come  to  regard  Christianity  as  something 
dangerous  beyond  endurance  for  their  possessions  in  the 
East.  "  A  band  of  devils  "  was  preferable  to  a  band 
of  missionaries.  And  when  in  Parliament  their  ideas 
and  policy  were  severely  denounced,  they  were  the  more 
determined  to  keep  the  Gospel  out  of  India,  and  over 
the  Vellore  outbreak  in  1807  their  nervous  fear  became 
overwhelmingly  great.  However,  by  an  amendment  to 
their  charter  in  1813,  they  were  compelled  to  tolerate 
British  missionaries,  after  1833  missionaries  from  all 
Christendom  might  freely  enter,  and  after  the  mutiny  of 


THE  PHENOMENON   OF  MISSIONARY   EXPANSION.     135 

1857,  which  proved  the  death  blow  to  the  great  corpor- 
ation, the  last  legal  restrictions  were  removed,  except  in 
certain  of  the  native  states. 

Of  course,  there  was  no  room  for  missionaries  in  the 
Turkish  Empire,  or  anywhere  in  Mohammedan  realms. 
This  form  of  hindrance  to  the  Gospel  is  by  no  means 
yet  removed,  and  bids  fair  to  exist  for  generations  to 
come.  But  King  Edward  VII  is  sovereign  over  some 
65,000,000  Moslems,  and  their  lives  are  in  no  great  jeop- 
ardy if  they  would  accept  Christ.  In  Egypt,  too,  where 
British  influence  is  widely  felt,  there  is  a  fair  degree 
of  religious  freedom.  The  Shah  of  Persia  is  in  many 
respects  a  liberal  monarch,  while  even  the  Sultan  is  com- 
pelled to  wear  a  humiliating  hook  in  the  nose,  not  being 
able  to  do  just  what  he  would  with  his  Christian  sub- 
jects, but  in  many  things  consulting  the  judgment  and 
scruples  of  foreign  ambassadors,  especially  those  repre- 
senting the  moral  sense  of  Great  Britain.  In  like  man- 
ner, as  for  Roman  Catholic  countries  one  and  all,  they 
were  closed  against  the  entrance  of  the  word  of  God  as 
proclaimed  by  Protestants.  Church  and  State  were 
in  hearty  league  to  exclude  the  pestilent  heresy.  But 
presently  the  South  American  states,  one  after  another, 
began  to  rebel  against  their  European  masters,  to  set  up 
independent  governments,  and  to  move  forward  towards 
liberty,  both  civil  and  religious.  Since  1867,  the  gospel 
has  found  free  course  in  Mexico.  Though  under  many 
damaging  restrictions,  missionaries  are  tolerated  in  Aus- 
tria, in  the  ancient  home  of  Torquemada  and  the  Spanish 
Inquisition !  and,  wonder  of  wonders,  within  the  gates 
of  the  Eternal  City  itself !  Yes,  more  than  two  dozen 
Protestant  churches  are  doing  their  purifying  and  enno- 


136  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

bling  work  within  easy  gun-shot  of  the  Vatican.  And 
the  beginning  of  this  miracle  was  in  1870,  when  in  the 
midst  of  the  Franco-German  war  Victor  Emmanuel 
found  his  opportunity  to  appropriate  the  States  of  the 
Church,  and  to  make  Rome  his  capital. 

Such  are  some  of  the  more  notable  changes  in  the 
world  of  science  and  politics  which  have  had  a  bearing 
most  direct  and  momentous  on  the  great  matter  of  the 
diffusion  of  Christianity  throughout  the  whole  world. 
All  these  are  forces  favorable  to  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel  which  are  resident,  not  in  its  own  nature  and 
spirit,  but  rather  in  its  environment.  Coming  nearer  to 
realms  more  distinctively  religious,  the  missionary  toil 
of  this  century  has  been  wondrously  assisted  by  the 
printing  press,  by  the  astonishing  production  of  copies 
of  the  "word  of  God,  and  of  a  Christian  literature  in 
endless  variety,  and  in  quantity  beyond  calculation. 
Herein  lies  no  small  part  of  the  peculiar  privilege  and 
glory  of  the  Church  of  the  present  time,  and  in  this  fact 
is  found  much  of  the  secret  of  its  purity  of  doctrine  and 
vigor  of  life.  It  was  not  until  within  a  few  decades  that 
the  art  of  printing  emerged  from  infancy,  and  in  the 
fullness  of  strength  and  skill,  entered  upon  its  beneficent 
career.  No  man  can  estimate  how  much  the  kingdom, 
both  at  home  and  in  the  foreign  field,  owes  to  the  multi- 
plication of  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  and  their  distribu- 
tion by  the  various  Bible  societies.  Between  the  Chris- 
tian Era  and  the  Reformation,  a  period  of  about  fifteen 
hundred  years,  the  divinely  given  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice was  translated  into  but  twenty-three  languages,  at 
the  rate  of  one  in  sixty-five  years,  and  in  these  of  course 
was  found  only  in  manuscript.  Between  the  Reforma- 


THE  PHENOMENON  OF   MISSIONARY    EXPANSION.     137 

tion  and  1804,  when  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  So- 
ciety was  organized,  the  number  of  new  versions  reached 
thirty-four,  or  one  for  every  nine  years.  Between  1804 
and  1890,  when  printing  by  machinery  and  the  power- 
press  had  come  into  vogue,  three  hundred  and  forty-two 
versions  were  made  and  scattered  far  and  wide,  at  the 
rate  of  four  a  year.  In  the  decade  1881-91,  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society  alone  undertook  fifty  transla- 
tions. In  all,  from  the  beginning  this  society  has  pub- 
lished no  less  than  175,000,000  copies  of  the  Bible  or 
portions  thereof,  the  American  Bible  Society  70,677,000 
more  since  1816,  and  if  we  include  all  other  editions  like 
the  Bagster,  the  Oxford,  the  Revised  Version,  etc.,  etc., 
at  least  350,000,000  copies  must  have  been  produced 
since  the  modern  era  of  missions  began.  Add  now  to 
the  Bibles,  the  host  of  missionary  magazines,  annual  re- 
ports, tracts  and  leaflets,  books  historical  and  biograph- 
:£al,  essays,  sermons  and  the  rest,  and  how  much  has 
been  accomplished  to  move  Christendom,  and  heathen- 
dom also.  The  lives  of  Brainerd,  and  Martyn,  and 
Judson,  and  Livingstone,  and  Harriet  Newell,  and  Ann 
Hasseltine,  and  scores  of  others,  have  sufficed  to  kindle 
boundless  enthusiasm  and  devotion.  And  the  thrilling 
stories  of  such  successes  as  were  won  in  Fiji  and  Mada- 
gascar, among  the  Karens  and  Telugus,  by  increasing 
knowledge  have  increased  interest  a  hundred-fold.  In 
former  days  the  soldiers  of  the  cross  had  no  auxiliary 
able  at  all  to  match  the  present  might  of  the  printed 
word  of  God. 

But  other  invaluable  instrumentalities  have  been  con- 
trived, other  weapons  new,  and  mighty  through  God  to 
the  pulling  down  of  strongholds,  are  wielded  by  the 


138  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

modern  missionary.  It  is  Livingstone  who  reminds  us 
that,  however  it  may  once  have  been,  it  no  longer  re- 
mains true  that  the  missionary  is  adequately  represented 
by  the  picture  of  a  man  with  a  Bible  in  his  hard.  While 
an  evangelist  beyond  anything  else,  he  is  also  something 
more.  Whatever  he  does  is  to  be  for  the  Gospel's  sake, 
but  he  is  to  civilize  as  well  as  to  evangelize.  So  far  as  is 
possible  he  is  to  minister  to  every  human  need,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest.  By  the  school  the  intellect  is  to 
be  quickened  and  enlarged.  There  is  a  legitimate  place 
even  for  industrial  training.  The  splendid  results 
achieved  at  Lovedale,  and  by  Mr.  Duncan  among  the 
Indians  at  Metlakahtla  upon  the  Northwest  Coast,  are 
ample  proof  of  this.  The  man  of  God  in  pagan  lands 
is  to  feed  the  hungry  in  times  of  famine,  and  in  times 
of  pestilence  to  nurse  and  supply  healing  agencies.  The 
medical  mission,  when  rightly  employed,  is  as  purely 
Christlike  as  any  other  agency.  The  hospital  and  dis- 
pensary often  prove  well-nigh  irresistible  means  of  grace, 
for  they  are  easily  appreciated,  and  set  in  striking  con- 
trast the  love,  and  sympathy,  and  benevolence  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  selfishness  and  cruelty  of  pagan  re- 
ligions. Then  it  is  only  in  this  generation  that  the 
length  and  breadth,  the  height  and  depth,  of  woman's 
sphere  as  an  evangelizer  have  been  discovered,  and  so 
the  saving  efficacy  of  missionary  efforts  has  been  well- 
nigh  doubled.  So  long  as  men  only  were  commissioned, 
and  their  endeavors  were  held  in  honor,  one-half  of  the 
world  was  practically  shut  out  from  opportunities  to 
hear  of  Christ.  'And  it  was  not  until  women  were  de- 
spatched by  the  hundred  and  thousand  to  enter  the 
homes,  to  teach  the  children,  to  nurse,  to  practice  medi- 


THE  PHENOMENON   OF   MISSIONARY    EXPANSION.     139 

cine  and  surgery,  that  the  gospel  began  to  have  a  fair 
chance  to  vanquish  superstition  and  false  faith.  The 
women,  and  hence  the  homes,  had  been  but  slightly 
affected,  so  that  the  results  were  comparatively  super- 
ficial, and  the  progress  slow. 

The  gains  of  the  gospel  in  the  foreign  field  are  greater 
nowadays  for  another  reason.  Missionary  work  has 
been  so  long  in  progress  that  opportunity  has  been  af- 
forded to  select,  and  prepare,  and  set  to  their  tasks,  a 
native  ministry  in  numbers  relatively  large.  Until  this 
important  achievement  had  been  made,  missions  were 
not  fairly  on  their  feet.  Time  was  when  all  the  toilers 
were  foreigners,  wrestling  with  the  language  and  strug- 
gling desperately  to  make  themselves  understood,  wholly 
unacquainted  with  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  people, 
their  ideas,  prejudices,  and  peculiar  modes  of  thought. 
But  now  native  preachers,  pastors,  evangelists,  Bible- 
readers,  etc.,  outnumber  the  missionaries  four  to  one, 
and  presently  the  proportion  will  become  ten  to  one, 
and  fifty  to  one.  There  seems  to  be  no  divided  testi- 
mony as  to  the  significance  of  this  phase  of  the  current 
situation.  Japan  is  to  be  evangelized  by  the  Japanese, 
not  by  Europeans,  China  by  Chinamen,  Africa  by  Afri- 
cans. Only  these  can  impart  to  the  Gospel  a  native 
flavor,  only  these  can  speak  to  the  native  mind  and 
heart.  Add  to  this  another  result,  closely  related,  the 
presence  in  thousands  of  communities  of  natives  once 
in  the  degradation  of  heathenism,  but  now  enlightened, 
ennobled,  transformed,  a  daily  spectacle  to  all  behold- 
ers proving  the  matchless  power  of  divine  grace  to  save, 
and  well  may  the  kingdom  go  forward  with  rapid  strides. 
Children  are  able  to  begin  where  their  parents  left  off. 


140  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

More  and  more  is  the  virus  eliminated  from  the  blood 
and  bone.  A  generation  is  growing  up  which  was  born 
and  reared  in  Christian  homes,  at  least  in  Christian 
communities,  never  having  had  instruction,  or  experi- 
ence, in  the  follies  and  abominations  of  idolatry.  And 
hence  we  may  not  unreasonably  expect  the  increase  to 
be  in  geometrical  progression. 

Dr.  Warneck  suggests  that  in  evangelizing  the  heathen 
the  work  naturally  passes  through  various  phases  which 
differ  widely.  His  language  is :  "It  generally  happens, 
so  history  teaches  us,  that  every  mission  period  has 
three  stages,  though  of  course  these  are  not  always 
sharply  defined,  nor  do  they  always  demand  an  equal 
continuance.  The  first  stage  is  that  of  sending  of  the 
mission  and  of  individual  conversions,  with  the  gather- 
ing of  comparatively  small  churches ;  the  second  is  that 
of  the  organized  work  of  the  native  forces  and  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  church-life ;  the  third  is  that  of  the 
Christianizing  of  masses,  which  is  generally  connected 
with  the  occurrence  of  specially  great  events  in  mundane 
history,  political  revolutions,  the  acceptance  of  Chris- 
tianity by  the  chiefs,  etc."  Evidence  is  steadily  accum- 
ulating that  in  fields  not  a  few,  this  third  stage  of 
wholesale  turning  from  the  worship  of  idols  to  the  living 
God  is  not  only  at  the  door,  but  has  already  made  its 
most  impressive  and  significant  advent.  In  Fiji,  for 
example,  and  Madagascar,  and  in  southern  India,  in 
Ongole  among  the  Telugus,  among  the  Santals  also,  and 
latest  in  the  Methodist  missions  in  the  Northwest  Prov- 
inces. In  cases  quite  numerous  mass  conversions  are 
occurring,  whole  villages  putting  themselves  under  Chris- 
tian instruction,  hundreds  and  thousands  coining  to* 


THE  PHENOMENON   OF   MISSIONARY    EXPANSION.     141 

gather  desiring  baptism.      Even  in  conservative  China 
this  phenomena  begins  to  appear. 

But  finally,  such  remarkable  progress,  with  all  this 
impressive  combination  of  favoring  forces,  would  never 
have  been  made  unless  unusual  measures  of  power  from 
on  high  had  been  vouchsafed  to  this  century.  It  is  the 
century  of  missions  largely,  yes  mainly,  because  it  has 
been  also,  beyond  any  other,  a  century  of  revivals,  of 
quickened  and  purified  spiritual  life.  The  seasons  of 
refreshing  which  marked  the  early  decades  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  movement  both  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New 
have  returned  with  increasing  frequency  and  with  added 
abundance  of  blessing.  In  large  measure  modern  mis- 
sions are  the  direct  product  of  revivals.  The  vast  acces- 
sions of  vital  force  must  needs  expend  themselves  in 
some  form  of  religious  activity.  And,  happily,  the  zeal 
of  Christendom  was  turned  away  from  speculation,  the- 
ologizing and  endless  debate,  to  benevolence,  philan- 
throphy,  sympathy  for  the  needy  of  every  class.  Hence 
the  temperance  and  anti-slavery  reforms,  as  well  as  hos- 
pitals, asylums,  and  humane  undertakings  innumerable, 
missions  at  home  and  missions  abroad,  among  the  rest. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MISSIONS  IN  INDIA. 

HITHERTO,  in  tracing  the  beginning  and  the  unfolding 
of  modern  missionary  undertakings,  our  attention  has 
been  confined  mainly  to  Christendom,  to  the  quick- 
ening among  the  churches  of  zeal  for  the  world's 
evangelization,  and  to  the  organization  of  societies 
through  whose  instrumentality  the  stupendous  task  might 
be  hastened  forward  to  completion.  The  point  of  vis- 
ion will  now  be  transferred  to  heathen  lands,  and  ijf 
various  countries  the  condition  without  the  Gospel  win 
be  presented,  as  well  as  the  circumstances  attending  the 
entrance  and  progress  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  And 
in  all  fitness  India  should  hold  the  first  and  most  promi- 
nent place,  both  because  it  was  the  first  region  to  be 
entered  by  missionaries,  and  also  because  it  surpasses  all 
others  as  a  field  for  missionary  toil.  Within  its  bound- 
aries more  societies  are  represented,  and  the  working 
force  is  greater,  than  is  anywhere  else  to  be  found.  Here 
is  "  the  chief  scene  of  Protestant  mission  work,  upon 
which  have  been  concentrated  from  all  sides  its  numer- 
ous and  most  powerful  agencies."  India  "  is  the  chief 
bulwark  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness,"  and  its  evangel- 
ization "  is  perhaps  the  most  stupendous  enterprise  the 
church  of  Christ  has  ever  undertaken." 

And,  at  the  outset,  something  about  the  country,  its 
physical  characteristics,  which  have  an  intimate  con- 

142 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  143 

nection  with  the  people.  Until  within  years  quite  re- 
cent the  name  was  Hindostan,  the  land  of  the  Hindus. 
In  the  largest  sense  both  Ceylon  and  Burmah  are  in- 
cluded, that  is,  everything  lying  between  Afghanistan 
and  Siarn,  everything  from  the  Himalayas  to  Cape 
Comorin.  Thus  defined,  India  is  about  1,900  miles 
from  east  to  west,  and  not  far  from  the  same  distance 
from  north  to  south.  The  proportions  are  fairly  im- 
perial and  continental,  the  area  being  nearly  1,800,000 
square  miles ;  or  half  the  size  of  the  United  States, 
equal  to  all  Europe  with  Russia  omitted,  larger  than  the 
Roman  Empire  by  200,000  square  miles,  or  fifteen  times 
greater  than  Great  Britain.  This  vast  peninsula,  of 
triangular  shape,  is  divided  into  three  sections  which  are 
exceedingly  unlike.  The  Himalaya  region  is  mountain- 
ous of  course.  The  Ganges  basin,  including  the  valleys 
of  the  Indus  and  the  Brahmaputra,  is  exceedingly  fer- 
tile and  holds  a  large  majority  of  the  inhabitants.  The 
Deccan  is  a  plateau  begirt  by  mountains,  the  Vindhya 
range  upon  the  north,  with  the  Ghauts  upon  the  east  and 
west.  The  Western  Ghauts  rise  near  Bombay  to  an  ele- 
vation of  4,700  feet,  and  further  south  to  8,760,  while  the 
Eastern  Ghauts  maintain  an  average  height  of  about 
1,500  feet,  though  with  peaks  reaching  an  altitude  of 
4,000,  and  one  near  Madras  of  7,000.  The  general  slope 
of  the  inclosed  plateau  is  everywhere  to  the  east.  The 
coast  section  is  narrow  on  the  western  side  of  the  penin- 
sula and  the  mountains  rise  abruptly,  but  on  the  eastern 
side  is  a  plain  varying  in  width  from  fifty  to  a  hundred 
miles,  which  constitutes  the  Carnatic  of  history.  Taken 
as  a  whole,  India  contains  almost  every  variety  of  soil, 
climate  and  physical  feature,  the  dryest  and  the  wettest 


144  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

of  tracts,  the  extremes  of  arctic  cold  and  of  torrid  heat. 
There  are  deserts  where  rain  is  next  to  unknown,  and  at 
least  one  locality  where  the  precipitation  reaches  the 
prodigious  average  of  six  hundred  inches  a  year.  The 
greater  portion  of  the  country  under  view  lies  within  the 
tropics,  is  exceedingly  hot,  and  consequently,  most  try- 
ing to  the  health  of  those  of  European  and  American 
birth. 

One  reason  why  the  Christianization  of  India  is  a  task 
so  herculean,  is  found  in  the  vastness  of  its  population. 
According  to  the  census  of  1901,  upwards  of  297,842,- 
ooo  are  crowded  together  upon  its  acres,  or  about  one- 
fifth  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe.  For  populous- 
ness  only  China  is  a  rival.  Africa,  though  nearly  seven 
times  as  large,  has  but  about  one-half  as  many.  The 
population  is  equal  to  that  of  Europe  with  Russia  omit- 
ted. India  contains  three  times  as  many  as  the  Roman 
Empire  held  when  at  its  best.  If  the  United  States 
were  as  thickly  settled,  we  should  have  some  600,000,- 
ooo.  In  Bengal  alone  three  times  as  many  human  be- 
ings are  found  as  this  republic  can  number,  and  twice  as 
many  dwell  in  the  Central  Provinces.  Some  Indian 
areas  surpass  for  density  of  population  all  others  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  The  average  for  the  valley  of  the 
Ganges  is  500  to  the  square  mile,  while  600  are  often 
found,  and  sometimes  700.  And  this  host  is  not  massed 
in  great  cities,  but  upwards  of  ninety  per  cent,  are  agri- 
culturists, who  dwell  in  715,000  towns  and  villages,  of 
which  343,000  have  an  average  of  less  than  200  inhabi- 
tants each,  and  223,000  between  200  and  500.  The 
poverty  of  these  hordes  approaches  to  the  indescribable 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  145 

and  unimaginable,  while  their  intellectual  and  spiritual 
condition  is  in  close  correspondence. 

In  order  to  understand  the  missionary  problem  in 
India  it  is  necessary  to  subdivide  both  the  country  and 
the  people  in  various  ways.  Thus  while  nearly  1,000,- 
ooo  square  miles  go  to  make  up  British  India,  or  that 
portion  of  the  peninsula  which  is  ruled  directly  and  ab- 
solutely by  Great  Britain,  about  800,000  square  miles 
lie  within  the  limits  of  the  numerous  native,  or  feuda- 
tory, or  dependent  states,  which,  with  certain  restric- 
tions imposed  by  the  supreme  power,  are  left  in  the  hands 
of  Hindu  or  Mohammedan  princes.  But  while  the 
native  states  have  an  aggregate  of  some  66,000,000  in- 
habitants, British  India  has  upwards  of  236,000,000. 
Then  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  there  is  no  Indian 
nation  or  people.  The  land  is  a  very  Babel,  the  in- 
habitants by  race,  color,  physiognomy,  language,  intel- 
lectual character,  social  customs  and  religion,  are 
sundered  as  far  as  are  those  of  Europe ;  for  example,  the 
Britons,  Turks,  French,  Irish,  Germans,  Finns,  Italians, 
Russians,  etc.  Some  200  distinct  languages  and  dialects 
are  spoken  between  the  Himalayas  and  the  Cape.  First, 
there  are  the  Aryans,  or  Hindus  proper,  most  numerous 
and  most  intellectual,  and  numbering  208,000,000. 
These  are  mild,  effeminate,  timid  and  servile,  especially 
in  Bengal.  Next  come  the  more  than  57,000,000  Mo- 
hammedans, and  composed  of  a  mixture  of  Arabs, 
Afghans,  Persians,  Tatars,  and  what-not,  who  are  pos- 
sessed of  greater  pride  and  energy,  are  luxurious  and 
dissolute,  warlike  and  fanatical,  and  are  impatient  of 
English  control.  But,  from  long  dwelling  side  by  side, 
these  two  sections  of  the  population  have  borrowed 


146  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

much,  each  from  the  other.  Next  follow  the  Dravidian 
races,  like  the  Telugus  and  the  Tamils  of  the  Central 
Provinces  and  further  south,  of  whom  there  are  some 
53,000,000.  And  finally  there  are  the  numerous  bodies  of 
aborigines  (hill  tribes),  some  20,000,000  in  all,  dwell- 
ing each  tribe  in  a  district  by  itself,  like  the  Santals, 
Khonds,  Bhils,  Khols,  Karens,  etc.  If  we  divide  by 
religion,  we  shall  have  of  adherents  of  Brahmanism 
208,000,000,  62,500,000  Moslems,  and  several  smaller 
subdivisions.  Sir  William  Hunter  is  authority  for  the 
statement  that  there  are  at  least  60,000,000  who  are 
either  outside  of,  or  so  slightly  inside  of  orthodox 
Hinduism,  or  of  Islam,  that  they  are  easily  accessible  to 
the  Gospel.  And  it  comes  to  this,  that  in  this  single 
country  are  found  every  grade  of  false  faith  and  worship 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  from  the  Koran  with 
teachings  at  various  points  approaching  somewhat  to 
Christianity,  and  the  theology  and  morals  taught  in  the 
Vedas  and  the  writings  of  the  founder  of  Buddhism, 
to  the  most  degrading  superstitions  of  devil-worship. 
"  Here  is  to  be  found  a  form  of  civilization  at  some 
points  intellectual  and  lofty,  and  then  hard  by  a  state 
of  affairs  which  in  the  social  and  religious  realm  reflects 
only  ignorance  and  savagery."  India  contains  therefore 
a  confused  jumble  and  chaos  of  conditions,  peoples, 
ideas,  and  practices.  As  Professor  Seeley  well  suggests, 
it  is  "  not  a  political  name,  but  only  a  geographical  ex- 
pression like  Europe  or  Africa.  It  does  not  mark  the 
territory  of  a  nation  and  a  language,  but  the  territory  of 
many  nations  and  many  languages." 

No  attempt  will  be  made  to  present  a  complete  state- 
ment concerning  the  various  religions  of  India,  or  to  set 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  147 

forth  the  doctrines  contained  in  the  ancient  books. 
Some  of  the  salient  points,  the  characteristic  features 
of  a  few  will  be  given  as  they  appear  in  the  thoughts  and 
lives  of  the  people.  Nevertheless,  here,  as  always  in 
matters  relating  to  the  land  and  its  inhabitants,  such  is 
the  endless  diversity  that  general  statements,  however 
true,  are  almost  certain  to  be  misleading.  The  specifi- 
cations which  follow,  in  the  main,  will  apply  only  to 
the  Hindus  proper,  who  constitute  about  two-thirds  of 
the  population.  When  missionaries  first  entered  the 
country  certain  phenomena  were  very  prominent,  and 
made  a  deep  impression,  which  now  possess  only  a 
historic  interest,  since,  thanks  to  the  resolute  action  of 
the  British  rulers,  they  have  entirely  disappeared. 
Such  was  the  famous,  infamous,  worship  of  Juggernaut, 
and  suttee,  and  certain  forms  of  human  sacrifice.  In- 
fanticide also,  and  Thuggism,  the  latter  for  ages  a  legal- 
ized form  of  murder,  practiced  with  the  accompaniment 
of  religious  rites,  and  the  dedication  of  one-third  of  the 
spoil  to  the  goddess  especially  interested  in  such  affairs. 
Hook-swinging,  once  common  as  a  form  of  ascetic  self- 
infliction  in  order  to  win  salvation,  though  forbidden  by 
law,  even  yet  occasionally  occurs.  The  fakirs,  some- 
times Hindus  and  sometimes  Mohammedans,  are  as  nu- 
merous as  ever.  One  recently  appeared  in  Bombay 
who  for  years,  in  order  to  free  himself  from  sin,  had 
worn  upon  his  body  iron  chains  weighing  six  hundred 
pounds.  A  prominent  part  is  played  in  Indian  society 
by  the  nautch  girls,  a  numerous  class  of  prostitutes, 
whose  presence  as  dancers  on  all  occasions  of  ceremony 
is  considered  to  be  essential,  the  highest  English  civil 
dignitaries  also  accepting  the  custom  without  protest. 


148  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

Among  the  enormities  is  to  be  named  the  systematic  and 
extensive  pollution  of  girls  and  married  women  in  the 
temples,  and  all  in  the  name  of  religion,  to  please  the 
gods.  Polygamy  is  practiced  by  Moslems  and  Hindus 
alike,  with  ihe  accompaniment  of  the  seclusion  of 
women  in  zenanas,  their  abject  ignorance,  and  slavery. 
Child  marriage  too  is  dreadfully  common,  and  works  a 
world  of  sorrow  and  degradation.  Girls  are  forced  into 
marriage  in  tender  years,  and  if  the  husband  dies,  the 
woeful  lot  of  the  widow  is  theirs  for  life.  The  pious 
Hindu  holds  animal  life  sacred,  and  it  is  at  least  in  part 
to  scruples  at  this  point  that  we  are  to  attribute  the 
astounding  passiveness  and  unconcern  with  which  the 
ravages  of  tigers  and  venomous  serpents  are  endured 
It  sometimes  occurs  that  public  highways  are  effectually 
blockaded  for  months  by  tigers,  and  villages  are  depop- 
ulated. The  cobra  destroys  an  average  of  20,000  human 
lives  a  year.  In  1875-80  no  less  than  1,073,546  snakes 
were  killed  by  British  influence,  while  103,000  Hindus 
perished  from  their  bites. 

But  last,  strangest,  and  constituting  the  greatest  hin- 
drance to  the  introduction  of  the  gospel,  is  India's  pe- 
culiar institution  of  caste.  Nor  is  this  an  integral  part 
of  original  Brahmanism ;  it  is  not  enjoined  in  the  Vedas, 
but  is  of  a  later  growth.  The  Brahmans,  constituting 
the  highest  of  the  four  principal  social  divisions,  are 
the  priests,  number  some  20,000,000,  affect  an  awful 
sanctity,  and  are  most  haughty  in  their  bearing  towards 
the  multitude.  Being  the  learned  men  after  the  Indian 
fashion,  they  possess  great  influence,  and  as  vice-gerents 
of  the  great  divinities,  at  many  points  make  themselves 
indispensable.  Of  late  however,  since  occidental  ideas 


MlhSlOIMJs    IN    11»1>  I  A.  149 

have  invaded  India,  and  the  power  of  the  Gospel  has 
been  felt  far  and  wide  among  the  masses,  this  sacerdotal 
order  has  sadly  fallen  from  its  former  high  estate. 
Especially  in  the  crowded  railway  carriage  the  Brahman 
is  liable  to  be  profanely  jostled,  and,  when  reduced  to 
poverty,  is  compelled  to  labor  for  a  livelihood  like 
common  clay.  The  subdivisions  of  caste  are  legion. 
Thus  the  last  census  took  note  of  no  less  than  8,363  in 
all,  including  521  kinds  of  Brahmans,  and  957  varie- 
ties of  the  cultivator  caste.  A  single  division  of  the 
merchant  caste,  the  Wanias,  has  411  subdivisions,  the 
carpenter  caste  has  94  divisions,  the  blacksmiths  76, 
the  goldsmiths  86,  and  the  coppersmiths  108.  To  such 
an  incredible  extent  does  this  pernicious  species  of  bar- 
rier-building between  man  and  man  prevail  that  even 
the  out-castes  have  their  classes,  and  of  the  Mahars 
there  are  244  kinds  and  154  of  the  Mangs.  Concern- 
ing this  phenomenon,  Monier  Williams  says:  "It  is 
difficult  for  us  Europeans  to  understand  how  pride  of 
caste  as  a  divine  ordinance  interpenetrates  the  whole 
being  of  the  Hindu.  He  looks  upon  caste  as  his  ver- 
itable god,  and  those  caste  rules  which  we  believe  to  be 
a  hindrance  to  the  acceptance  of  the  true  religion,  are 
to  him  the  very  essence  of  all  religion.  They  influence 
his  whole  life  and  conduct."  Probably  the  condition 
of  the  pariahs  is  as  deplorable  as  that  of  any  portion  of 
the  human  family.  They  are  held  in  contempt  by  all 
above  them,  have  no  social  or  civil  rights  which  others 
are  bound  to  respect,  the  public  schools  are  closed 
against  them,  the  public  wells  and  tanks  would  be  fatally 
polluted  by  their  use,  and  in  general  they  are  doomed 
to  the  deepest  poverty  and  ignorance,  and  to  the  worst 


150  A   HUNDRED   YEARS    OF   MISSIONS. 

of  moral  and  sanitary  conditions.  It  is  the  last  triumph 
of  grace,  the  one  convincing  evidence  of  genuine  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Gospel,  when  men  of  different  castes 
will  meet,  and  love,  and  associate  as  brethren,  without 
repugnance  will  sit  together  at  the  Lord's  table  ! 

A  brief  outline  of  Indian  history  is  next  in  order. 
The  introduction  of  this  peninsula  to  the  civilized  world 
occurred  as  far  back  as  327  B.  c.,  when  Alexander  pen- 
etrated into  the  Punjab.  But  for  unknown  centuries 
before  that  date,  and  ever  since,  invasion  and  conquest 
have  been  the  lot  of  well-nigh  every  generation.  For, 
though  upon  the  north  India  is  marvelously  well  pro- 
tected against  outside  enemies  by  gigantic  mountain 
walls  rising  to  heaven,  upon  three  sides  the  exposure  is 
great  to  attack  from  the  sea.  And  also,  at  both  the 
northeast  and  the  northwest,  by  way  of  certain  passes 
down  gorges  cut  by  the  Brahmaputra  and  Ganges 
through  the  Himalayas,  a  hostile  entrance  is  by  no 
means  difficult.  And  it  was  by  the  Khyber  Pass — one 
of  the  most  important  natural  highways  upon  the  earth's 
surface,  as  well  as  one  of  the  mightiest  forces  in  the 
shaping  of  Indian  history — that  most  of  the  conquering 
hosts  have  descended.  Leaving  unmentioned  all  earlier 
irruptions,  the  Mohammedans  began  their  long  series  of 
assaults  in  the  year  664.  Among  the  most  effectual  of 
their  attempts  at  conquest  were  the  twelve  campaigns  of 
the  Afghan,  Mahmud  of  Ghazni  (997-1030),  who 
pushed  his  dominion  far  to  the  east  and  south  of  the 
Indus.  Timour  the  Tartar  was  crowned  at  Delhi  in 
1398,  and  Baber,  the  fifth  from  Timour,  led  his  irre- 
sistible followers  down  the  passes  in  1525.  Akbar,  the 
founder  of  the  Mogul  Empire,  flourished  during  the 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  151 

reign  of  Elizabeth  of  England  (1556-1605).  The 
greatest  of  that  line  was  Aurangzeb  (1658-1707),  though 
a  fatal  decline  of  power  had  already  set  in.  Thus,  for 
seven  or  eight  centuries,  host  after  host  of  semi-savage 
Moslems  poured  in  to  ruthlessly  burn,  pillage,  and 
slaughter.  About  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
within  twenty-three  years,  no  less  than  six  such  de- 
structive incursions  occurred. 

The  Portuguese  were  the  first  of  Europeans  to  enter 
India,  making  their  advent  from  the  ocean,  and  coming 
merely  for  purposes  of  trade.  Goa  was  their  commercial 
center.  It  was  nearly  a  hundred  years  later  before  any 
of  the  Protestant  powers  ventured  to  follow  in  their  foot- 
steps. We  have  already  seen,  in  an  earlier  chapter,  how 
the  Danes,  building  far  wiser  than  they  knew,  the  full 
import  of  their  deed  not  appearing  until  nearly  two  cen- 
turies had  passed,  in  the  same  year  (1616),  founded  both 
Tranquebar  and  Serampore.  The  Dutch  dispossessed 
the  Portuguese  of  Ceylon  in  1651,  and  five  years  later 
opened  a  factory  at  Chinsurah,  on  the  Hugli  and  some 
twenty-five  miles  above  Calcutta.  The  English,  never 
dreaming  of  the  imperial  dominion  in  store  for  them, 
first  touched  Indian  soil  at  Surat  in  1614,  and  between 
1630  and  1 66 1  established  trading  places  at  Madras,  Cal- 
cutta and  Bombay,  with  forts  and  a  handful  of  troops 
for  their  protection.  It  was  almost  a  hundred  years  after 
that  circumstances  began  to  thrust  upon  this  astonished 
company  of  merchants  the  possession  of  large  territories, 
and  civil  authority  without  limit.  Two  forces  in  par- 
ticular conspired  together  to  compel  the  East  India  cor- 
poration to  decide  between  meddling  with  energy  and 
decision  in  the  political  affairs  of  the  country,  and  with- 


152  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

drawing  altogether  from  trade  with  the  natives.  First, 
all  matters  relating  to  government  and  civil  authority 
were  in  utter  chaos.  A  few  years  after  the  death  of  Au- 
rangzeb  the  vast  empire  reared  by  him  fell  to  pieces,  and 
generations  followed  of  rebellion,  revolution,  and  armed 
strife,  unusual  even  in  Indian  experience.  Between  the 
"  Home  of  Snow  "  and  the  Southern  Cape,  scores  and 
hundreds  of  upstart  rulers  were  crowding  their  purely 
selfish  schemes,  with  universal  disorder  and  violence  as 
the  result.  Besides,  Frenchmen  had  entered  the  land  as 
traders,  and  had  occupied  several  localities,  some  of 
them  in  the  vicinity  of  Madras.  From  time  immemorial 
Briton  and  Gaul  had  been  rivals  and  antagonists,  and 
were  often  at  war.  About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  while  the  Seven  Years'  War  was  raging, 
Dupleix  was  found  at  the  head  of  French  interests  in 
India,  a  man  of  consummate  ability  in  the  realm  of 
statecraft,  and  full  of  ambition  and  far-reaching  plans 
He  soon  perceived  that  the  Hindu,  trained  by  European 
officers,  would  make  a  reliable  soldier.  And  further, 
that  in  the  prevalent  anarchy,  with  troops  thus  secured, 
by  siding  with  certain  native  aspirants  for  political  power, 
he  could  advance  his  own  interests  most  effectually. 
And  then,  almost  of  necessity,  he  came  into  collision 
with  his  British  neighbors.  How  marvelous  the  coinci- 
dence, by  the  crushing  defeat  of  Montcalm  on  the  Plains 
of  Abraham  in  1759  Catholic  France  was  forever  driven 
from  North  America,  and  in  the  year  following,  by  an- 
other as  disastrous  at  Wandewash,  she  was  driven  from 
the  Indian  peninsula,  from  henceforth  leaving  British  in- 
fluence supreme,  and  almost  without  a  European  rival. 
And  what  is  especially  of  importance,  the  conquerors  in 


MISSIONS  IN  INDIA.  153 

this  strife  never  forgot  the  lesson  taught  them  by  Dupleix. 
Now  it  is  that  the  East  India  Company  ceases  to  be 
simply  an  incorporated  body  of  merchants,  and  plays 
hereafter,  often  perhaps  too  thoroughly,  the  role  of  con- 
queror and  sovereign.  But  still  further,  two  years  before 
Wolfe's  victory  had  been  won,  Colonel  Clive  had  made 
an  achievement  in  the  vicinity  of  Calcutta  almost  as  de- 
cisive, and  leading  to  results  perhaps  fully  as  memorable. 
The  reference  of  course  is  to  his  overwhelming  victory 
at  Plassey  over  Surajah  Dowlah  and  his  hordes  of  Hin- 
dus, a  battle  fought  to  avenge  the  shocking  barbarities  of 
ftie  Black  Hole.  By  that  single  stroke  Bengal,  with  all 
its  teeming  millions,  became  British  territory.  From 
that  day  to  this,  sometimes  it  must  be  confessed  with 
aims  and  by  means  utterly  without  justification,  but  per- 
haps oftenest  rather  under  the  urgency  of  a  real  political 
necessity,  the  boundaries  of  British  rule  have  been  stead- 
ily enlarging  until  now  nothing  is  left  in  the  peninsula 
not  really  subject  to  King  Edward. 

It  cannot  but  be  esteemed  one  of  the  world's  wonders 
how  the  almost  300,000,000  of  Indians  are  held  in  sub. 
jection  by  the  about  100,000  Englishmen  to  be  found  in 
the  land.  So  tremendously  outnumbered  are  the  rulers 
— only  about  one  European  to  3,000  Asiatics — that  as 
•ome  adept  in  figures  has  calculated,  if  each  Hindu 
should  take  up  a  handful  of  dirt  and  cast  it  upon  the  in- 
truding foreigners,  they  all  would  be  buried  under  six 
feet  depth  of  soil !  To  be  sure,  a  standing  army  is 
maintained,  numbering  some  70,000  Europeans  and 
170,000  natives,  with  a  well-drilled  police  force  in  addi- 
tion of  150,000  mostly  armed  with  guns  or  swords. 
But  besides,  25,500  miles  of  railroads  have  been  con- 


154  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

structed  to  connect  all  the  principal  cities,  and  a  splen- 
did system  of  public  roads,  nearly  150,000  miles  in  all, 
of  which  33,400  are  metaled,  as  well  as  nearly  40,000 
miles  of  telegraph  lines.  Millions  have  been  expended 
upon  public  works  like  bridges,  reservoirs,  and  irrigation 
canals.  Of  the  latter,  one  stretches  through  the  valley 
of  the  Ganges  for  437  miles,  with  3,576  miles  of  distrib- 
utaries, and  another  is  found  in  the  Punjab,  542  miles  in 
length,  with  4,385  miles  of  subordinate  canals,  while  in 
the  Madras  Presidency  these  works,  so  essential  in  guard- 
ing against  famines,  are  most  extensive  and  costly  of  all. 
But  far  better  to  strengthen  and  perpetuate  British  sov- 
ereignty, is  the  good  government  everywhere  maintained. 
Justice  is  secured  to  all,  and  peace,  absolute  freedom 
from  despotic  exactions,  with  safety  to  person  and  prop- 
erty. The  method  of  government  is  peculiar,  and  varies 
greatly  according  to  circumstances.  While  a  portion  of 
the  population  is  subject  to  legal  codes  thoroughly  Eng- 
lish and  civilized,  many  are  governed  much  as  their 
fathers  were  centuries  ago.  This  diversity  in  the  kind 
and  degree  of  control  is  found  mainly  in  the  native,  or 
feudatory  states.  These  are  all  nominally  under  the  rule 
of  Hindu  or  Mohammedan  princes,  but  really  only 
with  the  help  and  in  accordance  with  the  advice  of  a 
British  resident  or  agent.  They  have  no  right  to  make 
war  or  peace,  or  to  send  ambassadors  to  each  other,  or 
to  governments  outside  of  India.  They  are  not  allowed 
to  maintain  a  military  force  beyond  a  certain  limit.  No 
European  is  permitted  to  reside  at  court  without  especial 
sanction.  And  in  case  of  misgovernment  on  their  part, 
the  penalty  of  dethronement  may  be  inflicted.  But  with 
these  restrictions,  the  native  chiefs  possess  sovereign  au- 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  1 55 

thority.  Some  of  them,  like  the  Nizam  whose  dominions 
cover  100,000  square  miles,  collect  large  revenues,  and 
surround  themselves  with  oriental  magnificence,  while  the 
sway  of  others  is  confined  to  a  domain  ridiculously 
meagre.  The  native  state  of  Kathiawar  has  an  area  of 
22,000  square  miles,  and  a  population  of  2,600,000 ;  but 
is  subdivided  into  182  separate  and  distinct  states,  of 
which  132  pay  tribute  to  the  nawab  (nabob)  of  Juna- 
garh,  ninety-six  pay  tribute  to  the  supreme  government, 
and  thirteen  pay  no  tribute  at  all.  So  far  as  possible, 
consistently  with  safety  and  the  general  welfare,  local 
self-government  is  allowed  and  encouraged.  Moreover, 
various  schools  are  maintained,  in  which  the  natives  are 
trained  to  fitness  to  fill  important  public  positions.  An 
educational  system  is  in  vogu^  which  dates  from  1854, 
and  comprises  a  total  of  14 7, 300  schools  of  all  grades, 
in  which  some  4,450,000  are  receiving  instruction,  while 
12,000,000  more  are  able  to  read  and  write.  But  after 
all  that  has  been  done  by  the  government  and  by  the 
various  missions,  it  remains  that  only  19.3  per  cent,  of 
the  boys  of  school  age  are  found  in  the  schools,  and 
only  1.8  per  cent,  of  the  girls.  Normal  schools  are  es- 
tablished in  every  province,  and  various  medical  colleges 
to  train  the  natives  for  service  in  the  numerous  public 
hospitals  and  dispensaries.  In  general  it  may  be 
affirmed  that,  at  least  for  the  last  fifty  years,  at  the  head 
of  affairs  in  India  have  for  the  most  part  been  found 
only  men  of  the  highest  intellectual  ability  and  moral 
worth,  able  statesmen,  and  worthy  exponents  of  Chris- 
tianity, who  honestly,  earnestly,  and  effectually,  sought 
to  rule  in  righteousness,  and  with  the  utmost  of  benefit 
to  all  classes  of  the  people. 


I$6  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

So  much  for  India,  the  country,  its  history,  its  peo- 
ples, and  their  present  rulers.  We  come  now  to  the  story 
of  the  beginnings  of  the  Gospel,  and  its  progress  towards 
the  fulness  of  strength.  The  far-off  date  cannot  be  given 
when  for  the  first  time  the  glad  tidings  crossed  the  Him- 
alayas. But  by  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  churches 
were  found  upon  the  Malabar  Coast,  and  the  Nestorians, 
so  long  famous  for  their  missionary  zeal,  may  have  pushed 
down  through  the  Khyber  Pass,  bent  on  errands  of  love. 
Certain  it  is  that  the  light  then  kindled  has  never  since 
been  entirely  extinguished.  Modern  missions  in  the  land 
of  the  Hindus  date  from  1 706,  when  the  Danish-Halle 
work  was  begun  at  Tranquebar,  by  Ziegenbalg  and  Plut- 
scho,  and  in  which  so  long  Lutherans  and  Calvinists, 
Danes,  Germans  and  English  were  so  harmoniously 
united.  The  number  of  laborers  was  always  small,  and 
these  were  usually  crippled  for  lack  of  financial  support, 
as  well  as  by  vexatious  interference  on  the  part  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical authorities  at  home.  It  was  only  after  great 
delay  that  ordination  was  secured  for  native  ministers. 
In  addition,  the  well-meant  but  unfortunate  attempt 
was  made  to  compromise  with  caste  prejudices.  These 
hindrances,  with  the  disturbances  connected  with  the 
frequent  wars  of  the  period,  combined  finally  to  bring  the 
mission  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  The  career  of  Schwartz 
was  illustrious  in  almost  every  particular,  covering  nearly 
a  half  century  (1750-98),  and  filled  with  deeds  of  the 
noblest  and  most  self-denying  kind.  Such  were  his 
shining  qualities  of  both  mind  and  heart,  that  he  was  often 
counseled  with  by  the  British  authorities  upon  important 
matters  of  state,  and  he  also  gained  the  absolute  confi- 
dence and  affection  of  such  sturdy  and  unscrupulous 


MISSIONS  IN  INDIA.  157 

Hindu-Mohammedan  foes  as  Hyder  All.  At  his  death  a 
monument  was  erected  in  his  honor  by  the  Rajah  of  Tan- 
jore,  and  another  of  great  cost  and  beauty  was  reared  in 
Madras  by  the  East  India  Company. 

As  Schwartz  was  nearing  the  end  of  his  course  in  south- 
ern India,  the  God  of  missions  was  preparing  an  instru- 
ment even  greater  than  he,  and  one  by  whose  labors,  far 
more  than  by  those  of  any  other,  the  whole  land  was  at 
length  to  be  opened  and  filled  with  the  gospel  of  salva- 
tion. As  was  most  fitting,  this  new  empire,  being  an 
English  possession,  was  to  be  Christianized  mainly  by 
those  speaking  the  English  tongue,  though  the  whole 
Christian  world  was  to  presently  make  ready,  and  go  up 
together  to  conquer  this  vast  and  populous  realm  for  Im- 
manuel.  Carey  was  the  divinely  chosen  leader,  who, 
landing  in  Calcutta  from  the  Danish  East  Indiaman,  first 
set  foot  on  Indian  soil  November  n,  1793.  The  way 
had  slightly  been  prepared  for  his  coming.  Thus  Kier- 
nander,  formerly  of  the  Tranquebar  mission,  had  been 
transferred  from  Madras  to  the  Hugli  as  far  back  as 
1758,  and  ever  since  had  been  in  labors  abundant  alike 
for  English,  Portuguese  and  Hindus.  A  few  earnest  and 
devoted  Christian  men  were  found  in  the  city  from  among 
the  servants  of  the  Company.  Such  were  Charles  Grant, 
Mr.  Udney,  and  David  Brown,  chaplain  of  the  Military 
Orphans'  College.  As  early  as  1 7  78  they  had  commenced 
to  agitate  for  the  introduction  of  the  gospel,  and  Mr. 
Grant  had  offered  to  give  ^£360  a  year  for  the  support  of 
two  missionaries.  In  1 783  John  Thomas  had  come  out 
as  a  surgeon  and  had  given  himself  zealously  to  the  task 
of  evangelizing  the  natives.  To  secure  funds  for  the  en- 
largement of  his  undertaking,  he  had  gone  home  and 


158  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

thus  had  come  into  contact  with  the  new-born  Baptist 
Society  and  with  Carey,  and  thus  the  latter  was  provi- 
dentially led  to  this  portion  of  the  pagan  world.  Claud- 
ius Buchanan  (1796-1808),  while  rilling  the  position  of 
chaplain,  rendered  invaluable  service  by  tongue  and  pen, 
while  Henry  Martyn,  another  chaplain  (1806-12),  kin- 
died  a  fervor  for  missions  which  has  not  died  out  to  this 
day. 

The  situation  as  Carey  found  it  cannot  be  understood 
without  some  reference  to  the  attitude  then  recently  taken 
by  the  East  India  Company  as  touching  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  into  their  domain,  and  which  was  in  some 
measure  maintained  almost  to  the  end  of  his  life.  In 
former  times  no  repugnance  had  been  felt  towards  mis- 
sionaries. They  had  been  permitted  to  enter  freely,  and 
without  let  or  hindrance  carry  on  their  work,  and  some- 
times had  even  been  granted  free  passage.  Kiernander 
had  taken  up  his  residence  in  Calcutta  at  the  express  re- 
quest of  Colonel  Clive,  while,  as  we  have  seen,  Schwartz 
was  held  in  high  favor,  and  was  the  recipient  of  distin- 
guished post  mortem  honors.  But  a  change  of  sentiment 
began  to  appear  when  Grant  and  his  friends,  with  Wil- 
berforce  for  champion,  urged  upon  Parliament  to  provide 
for  India  a  complete  religious  establishment.  Party  lines 
were  drawn  and  the  debate  was  acrimonious.  The  char- 
ter of  the  Company  was  to  be  renewed  for  twenty  years 
in  1793,  a  few  months  before  the  fight  reached  its  fiercest 
stage,  and  ended  for  the  time  in  a  victory  for  the  policy 
of  exclusion  of  all  religious  effort  in  behalf  of  the  natives. 
The  opposition  to  missionary  activity  was  inspired  by  va- 
rious considerations.  Of  course  religious  indifference, 
not  to  say  malignant  hatred  to  Christianity,  played  a 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  159 

large  part.  Too  many  of  the  "  old  Indians  "  had  suc- 
cumbed to  the  manifold  allurements  which  had  beset  their 
steps,  with  serious  damage  to  their  morals.  Then  the 
idea  was  quite  prevalent  that  the  Company  was  not  in  the 
least  responsible  for  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  well- 
being  of  the  millions  of  Moslems  and  Hindus,  and  hence 
was  under  no  sort  of  obligation  to  undertake  aught  in 
their  behalf.  They  had  their  ancient  religions  and  social 
customs,  and,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  let  these  remain 
as  they  are.  There  was  an  absurd  affectation  of  superior 
toleration  and  breadth  of  sympathy,  and  a  disposition  to 
maintain  that  Brahmanism,  and  Buddhism,  and  the  devil 
worship  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  were  actually  better  for 
the  people  than  a  faith  and  practice  which  they  could 
never  appreciate.  Hence,  on  the  part  of  not  a  few  in 
authority,  there  was  a  readiness  to  excuse  and  wink  at 
the  worst  abominations  to  be  found,  and  even  to  deri\t 
from  them  a  pecuniary  benefit.  But  beyond  all  this  there 
was  something  in  the  evident  facts  in  the  case  which  ap- 
pealed mightily  to  the  fears  of  the  timid.  There  was 
that  vast  population,  most  bigoted,  and  all  ablaze  with 
fanaticism.  Therefore,  how  suicidal  to  British  interests 
to  allow  missionaries  to  travel  up  and  down  in  the  effort 
to  make  proselytes.  It  would  be  only  to  provoke  an  ex- 
plosion, whose  result  would  be  the  death  of  every  Euro- 
pean. The  few  thousands  could  continue  in  the  land 
only  by  refraining  carefully  from  all  lines  of  action  cal- 
culated to  excite  the  passions  of  the  multitude.  After 
the  mutiny  at  Vellore  in  1806  this  morbid  fear  was  still 
further  strengthened. 

But,  notwithstanding,  the  moral  sentiment  of  Christian 
England  had  begun  to  assert  itself,  and  temporary  defeat 


l6o  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

only  tended  to  add  to  its  depth  and  breadth.  The  dis- 
cussion went  steadily  on,  with  Carey  and  a  few  other 
missionaries  barely  tolerated  in  India  to  lend  efficient 
assistance,  and  when  the  charter  was,  in  1813,  to  be  once 
more  renewed,  an  amendment  was  carried,  to  the  effect 
that  "  it  is  the  duty  of  this  country  to  promote  in  India 
the  introduction  of  useful  knowledge,  and  of  religious  and 
moral  improvement,  and  that  facilities  be  afforded  by  law 
to  persons  desirous  of  going  to  and  remaining  in  India, 
to  accomplish  these  benevolent  designs."  A  bishopric 
was  also  provided  for,  with  an  archdeacon  for  each  one  of 
the  three  Presidencies.  It  was  not,  however,until  after  yet 
another  amendment  to  the  charter,  introduced  in  1833, 
that  the  gospel  was  suffered  to  have  free  course  through- 
out British  India.  The  first  missionary  to  enter  any  of 
the  native  states  was  not  allowed  the  opportunity  until 
1841,  when  the  Irish  Presbyterian  Church  occupied  Ka- 
thiawar. 

The  great  Mutiny  of  1857  may  very  properly  betaken 
as  the  dividing  line  between  the  ancient  and  the  modern 
periods  in  the  history  of  efforts  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  Hindus,  and  in  length  each  portion  is  not  far 
from  a  half  century.  The  first  was  the  time  of  begin- 
nings, the  day  of  small  things.  This  mightiest  fortress 
of  paganism  was  not  to  be  taken  by  bold  and  sudden 
assault.  A  protracted  siege  was  required  instead,  and 
so  an  investment  must  be  made,  extensive  works  were  to 
be  constructed,  and  adequate  forces  gathered,  the  artil- 
lery put  in  position,  and  the  sappers  and  miners  set  to 
their  tasks.  That  is,  the  numerous  languages  were  to  be 
mastered,  and  translations  of  the  Bible  made  and  pub- 
lished. Schools  were  to  be  opened,  and  a  generation  of 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  l6l 

native  helpers  raised  up  and  prepared  for  their  calling. 
And  all  this,  while  at  home  public  opinion  was  bringing 
the  recreant  Company  to  reason  and  conscience,  and 
while  British  authority  in  the  peninsula  was  receiving 
steady  enlargement  and  consolidation.  The  bloody 
Marathi  wars  in  the  early  decades  of  the  century 
brought  substantial  increase  of  territory,  as  well  as  the 
two  campaigns  against  the  Sikhs  in  the  forties,  and  the 
two  struggles  for  mastery  with  Burmah.  In  1850  con- 
siderably less  than  a  score  of  societies  were  represented 
in  the  land  by  339  foreign  ordained  agents,  by  21  or- 
dained natives  and  493  other  native  assistants,  while  the 
communicants  numbered  but  14,661,  and  the  native 
adherents  all  told,  but  91,091. 

For  various  reasons,  the  sudden  and  terrible  outburst 
in  1857  of  combined  race-hatred  and  religious  fanati- 
cism, was  of  profound  significance  for  India,  and  was 
wondrously  overruled  for  the  enlargement  of  Christian- 
ity. For  one  thing,  it  brought  to  an  end,  at  once  and 
forever,  the  East  India  Company,  after  a  career  of  more 
than  250  years.  Having  long  since  fulfilled  its  mission 
and  outlived  its  usefulness,  this  mightiest  and  most  fam- 
ous of  commercial  corporations  went  out  of  existence 
"  unwept,  unhonored  and  unsung."  From  henceforth 
the  land  of  the  Hindus  was  to  constitute  an  integral  part 
of  the  British  Empire,  and  was  to  be  governed  directly 
and  completely  by  Parliament.  And,  by  the  unutter- 
able barbarities  which  attended  the  Mutiny,  there  was 
thrust  upon  British  statesmen,  and  British  Christians,  a 
knowledge  of  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  popula- 
tion, and  a  deep  conviction  that,  at  least  for  Britain's 
sake,  if  not  for  the  sake  of  these  degraded  millions  of 


162  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

subjects,  the  humanizing,  elevating  gospel  must  be  car- 
ried at  the  soonest  to  every  community  from  the  bor- 
ders of  Tibet  to  the  Malabar  Coast.  A  remarkable 
awakening  of  missionary  zeal  ensued,  and  within  a  de- 
cade or  two  some  hundreds  of  devoted  men  and  women 
were  despatched  to  engage  in  loving,  self-denying  toil 
for  all  classes  alike,  whether  semi-savage  hill  tribes  and 
pariahs,  or  Brahmans  and  Mohammedans,  and  repre- 
senting almost  every  considerable  denomination  of 
America  and  Europe.  The  supreme  government, 
.hough  scrupulously  neutral  in  religious  matters,  and  al- 
lowing the  largest  liberty  to  all  faiths  consistent  with 
good  order,  is  yet  resolute  at  many  points  in  forbidding 
violations  of  morals  and  decency,  and  in  various  ways 
renders  indirect  assistance  to  the  heralds  of  the  cross. 
Thus,  English  courts  compel  obedience  to  law,  and  no 
more  can  the  native  Christian  be  robbed  of  all  property 
rights  by  legal  process.  Grants-in-aid  are  freely  allowed 
to  mission  schools  upon  certain  conditions,  and  many 
Englishmen  filling  important  stations  in  the  civil  and 
military  service,  not  only  adorn  the  gospel  by  godly 
lives,  but  also  on  all  occasions  act  and  speak  in  behalf 
of  the  Lord  they  love.  As  a  result  of  the  wise  and 
patient  seed-sowing  of  the  pioneers  and  founders  during 
the  first  half  of  the  century,  combined  with  the  vastly 
more  favorable  environments  existing  in  later  years,  the 
ingathering  has  been  relatively  very  large,  and  visible 
progress,  all  things  considered,  has  been  astonishing, 
and  full  of  encouragement  at  every  point.  To-day  in 
every  province  and  in  almost  every  state  of  India,  mis- 
sionaries of  both  sexes  are  to  be  found,  with  schools, 
hospitals,  dispensaries,  etc.,  as  powerful  auxiliaries. 


MISSIONS  IN  INDIA.  163 

Thousands  of  zenanas  are  wide  open,  inviting  Christian 
women  to  enter  and  utter  the  word  of  life.  And  every 
year  the  indications  multiply,  and  become  more  unmis- 
takable, that  a  new  and  glorious  era  is  approaching,  in 
which  millions  will  be  seen  flocking  to  Jesus  for  salva- 
tion. Already  the  number  of  ordained  missionaries  has 
nearly  reached  1,300  with  ordained  natives  almost  as 
many,  and  with  other  toilers  native  and  foreign  suffi- 
cient to  raise  the  total  of  the  evangelizing  force  to  but 
little  if  any  less  than  30,000.  And  as  standing  for  the 
harvest  of  souls,  let  these  figures  suffice :  The  com- 
municants aggregate  about  356,000,  and  the  adherents 
(native  Christians)  some  980,000,  or  if  the  Roman 
Catholics  are  included,  2,750,000.  Upwards  of  425,- 
ooo  children  are  gathered  in  the  various  mission  schools. 
How  changed  from  November  of  1 793  when  Carey  landed 
in  Calcutta  !  What  hath  God  wrought ! 

In  pursuing  the  thrilling  narrative  of  the  onward 
movement  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  India,  it  re- 
mains to  single  out  a  few  of  the  societies,  which  were 
earliest  in  the  field,  or  which  have  been  especially 
blessed  with  abundant  fruit,  and  to  present  in  brief  out- 
line some  of  the  more  striking  phases  of  their  work. 
Many  volumes  would  not  be  sufficient  to  tell  all  that 
here  has  been  dared,  and  endured,  and  achieved,  for 
Him  who  commanded,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world."  As 
a  matter  of  course,  we  set  forth  from  the  Baptist  So- 
ciety, and  from  Carey  and  Thomas,  "  who  landed  un- 
observed, coming  in  a  ship  which  had  cleared  from  a 
foreign  port,  but  escaped  arrest  and  deportation  only  be- 
cause their  presence  and  mission  were  unknown."  For 
months  following,  they  struggled  with  all  manner  of 


164  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

embarrassments,  and  seriously  lacked  the  very  necessa- 
ries of  life,  "  enduring  hardships  unknown  to  any  other 
missionaries  in  India  before  or  since."  But  what  stal- 
wart faith  was  present  to  sustain,  is  seen  in  this  record 
made  one  day  in  his  diary  when  the  external  situation 
was  at  the  worst  (the  words  are  well  worth  repeating)  : 
"  Well,  I  have  God,  and  his  word  is  sure ;  and  though 
the  superstitions  of  the  heathen  were  a  million  times 
worse  than  they  are,  if  I  were  deserted  by  all,  and  per- 
secuted by  all,  yet  my  hope,  fixed  on  that  word,  will 
rise  superior  to  all  obstructions,  and  triumph  over  all 
trials.  God's  cause  will  triumph,  and  I  shall  come  out 
of  all  trials  as  gold  purified  by  fire."  For  comfort  he 
reads  David  Brainerd.  Then  they  removed  to  Bandel, 
a  Portuguese  settlement  thirty  miles  up  the  river,  where 
Carey  was  to  support  himself  by  farming,  and  Thomas 
was  to  live  by  the  practice  of  medicine ;  but  some 
months  later  both  are  found  located  in  "  the  waste 
jungles  of  the  Sunderbunds,  in  the  tiger-haunted  swamps 
lying  to  the  east  of  Calcutta."  But  in  the  meantime, 
not  in  the  least  neglecting  the  diligent  study  of  various 
languages,  or  any  opportunity  of  offering  to  the  natives 
the  bread  of  life.  So  passed  the  first  year,  and  then  the 
dark  skies  began  to  brighten.  For  a  Mr.  Udney  offered 
to  each  a  situation  as  indigo  planter,  in  the  Dinajpore 
district  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  up  the  Ganges,  with 
a  salary  of  ^250.  This  occupation  was  followed  for 
six  years,  their  time  being  divided  between  the  secular 
duties  of  superintendence,  and  study  and  translating  the 
Scriptures,  as  well  as  teaching  and  preaching.  In  1 799 
a  large  reinforcement  to  the  mission  arrived,  with 
Marshman  and  Ward  among  the  rest,  in  an  American 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  165 

vessel,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Grant,  one  of  the 
directors  of  the  Company,  passing  by  Calcutta  and  as- 
cending the  river  to  Serampore,  a  Danish  possession. 
Here  a  cordial  welcome  was  accorded  them  by  Governor 
Bie,  who  for  years  had  been  under  the  influence  of 
Schwartz  in  Tanjore,  with  an  invitation  to  remain,  and 
a  promise  of  protection  and  assistance.  And  when 
later  a  demand  was  made  that  these  dangerous  "  inter- 
lopers "  be  surrendered,  in  order  that  they  might  be  sent 
back  to  England,  this  doughty  commandant  refused,  and 
declared  his  determination  to  shield  the  missionaries  with 
all  the  force  at  his  disposal.  Next,  under  a  Danish  pass, 
a  visit  was  made  to  Carey,  and  though  much  against  his 
will,  he  was  finally  persuaded  to  fix  the  seat  of  the  mission 
at  Serampore.  What  if  the  Danes  had  not  opened  a 
factory  upon  the  Hugli  in  1616? 

Thus  marvelously  it  came  about,  after  seven  long  and 
weary  years  of  waiting,  that  in  the  first  year  of  the  new 
century  something  systematic,  and  substantial,  and  en- 
during, could  be  undertaken  in  the  shape  of  regular 
public  services,  schools,  translating  and  printing.  For 
economy's  sake  all  the  missionaries  dwelt  together,  and 
had  all  things  common.  Almost  at  once,  a  variety  of 
institutions  began  to  appear  and  to  steadily  develop. 
Before  the  end  of  the  twelvemonth  the  first  Hindu  con- 
vert, Krishna  Pal,  was  baptized,  over  which  event, 
for  excess  of  joy,  poor  Thomas  went  insane  for  weeks. 
The  year  following  saw  Carey  installed  as  teacher  of 
Bengali  and  Sanscrit  in  the  Company's  College  of  Fort 
William,  with  a  salary  of  ^700,  and  raised  later  to 
;£i,8oo  !  From  this  income  so  much  was  saved  that, 
with  what  Marshman  and  the  others  could  earn  by 


1 66  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

teaching,  etc.,  the  Serampore  Brotherhood  were  able  to 
contribute  to  the  mission  in  all  ^90,000  ($450,000). 
A  full  third  of  a  century  remained  on  earth  for  this  im- 
mortal father  of  modern  Protestant  missions,  in  which 
to  unfold  his  far-reaching  and  multitudinous  plans,  and 
behold  the  fruits  of  his  prayers  and  toils.  His  direct 
aim  and  endeavor  took  in  nothing  else  than  the  entire 
eastern  world,  with  the  redemption  of  its  teeming  mil- 
lions. More  particularly,  he  undertook  to  give  them  in 
their  own  tongues  the  priceless  message  of  salvation,  and 
applied  himself  with  such  boundless  energy  and  skill 
that  he  lived  to  see  the  Scriptures,  or  portions  thereof, 
published  in  not  less  than  forty  of  the  languages  or  dia- 
lects of  southern  Asia.  Besides  this,  he  gave  himself 
with  all  diligence  to  the  performance  of  his  duties  in 
the  college.  Though  with  prudence  and  caution,  yet 
plainly  and  with  fearlessness,  he  uttered  his  protests 
against  the  policy  of  the  Company  in  countenancing  the 
abominations  of  paganism  while  putting  Christianity 
under  the  ban,  and  happily  lived  to  see  that  policy  over- 
thrown. And  finally,  all  along  and  without  cessation, 
he  tugged  away  with  tongue  and  pen  at  the  herculean 
and  most  discouraging  task  of  arousing  the  Christian 
world  to  earnestness  in  praying  and  giving,  and  in  or- 
ganizing to  send  their  sons  and  daughters  to  bear  the 
glad  tidings  to  every  land.  And  here,  too,  he  was  per- 
mitted to  behold  wondrous  advancement.  As  to  his 
own  mission,  by  1813  it  had  grown  to  thirty  stations  in 
northern  India,  including  Patna,  Agra  and  Orissa,  and 
manned  with  sixty-three  European  and  native  laborers. 
And  with  what  enterprise  the  work  was  pushed  appears 
in  the  fact  that  it  was  in  Serampore  that  India  saw  the 


MISSIONS  IN   INDIA.  167 

first  large  printing  press,  paper  mill  and  steam  engine 
set  up,  the  first  vernacular  newspaper  printed  in  Bengali, 
and  the  first  efforts  put  forth  for  the  education  of  Hindu 
girls  and  women. 

The  London  Society  was  early  in  the  Indian  field. 
Mr.  Forsy  th  was  sent  to  Calcutta  in  1 798,  but  located  him- 
self at  Chinsurah,  a  Dutch  factory,  some  twenty  miles  up 
the  river.  Here  he  toiled  alone  until  1812,  and  with  lit- 
tle apparent  effect.  The  next  missionaries  were  sent  to 
the  southern  portion  of  the  peninsula,  in  which  also,  next 
to  Madagascar,  its  most  extensive  victories  for  the  king- 
dom have  been  gained.  In  1805  work  was  begun  in 
Madras,  the  next  year  in  Vizagapatam,  far  up  the  coast 
of  the  Bay  of  Bengal  in  the  Northern  Circars;  in  1820 
at  Bangalore,  and  in  1824  at  Cuddapah,  both  some 
distance  to  the  northwest  of  Madras.  It  was  in  the 
field  last  named  that,  about  two  decades  later,  occurred 
a  wholesale  renunciation  of  idolatry  on  the  part  of  the 
out-caste  Malas.  The  kingdom  of  Travancore,  a  native 
state  in  the  extreme  southwest  of  India,  entered  in  1809, 
with  Nagercoil  and  Trevandrum  among  the  chief  sta- 
tions, has  been  the  scene  of  large  ingatherings.  Nearly 
300  out-stations  are  supplied  with  the  means  of  grace, 
and  about  50,000  native  Christians  are  under  religious 
training.  Missionaries  were  sent  to  Calcutta  in  1817, 
to  Benares  three  years  later,  and  since  to  various  other 
points  in  Bengal.  This  society  is  now  represented  by 
152  Europeans  of  both  sexes,  as  well  as  by  44  ordained 
natives  and  645  native  preachers.  Into  the  780  schools 
35*850  pupils  are  gathered,  while  the  church  members 
number  11,500  and  the  native  Christians  90,000. 

The  Church  of  England  performs  its  part  towards  the 


1 68  A   HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

evangelization  of  the  hosts  of  the  King's  subjects  in 
southern  Asia  largely  through  two  organizations,  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  which  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  ritualistic  party,  and  the  Church  Mission- 
ary Society,  controlled  by  the  evangelicals.  Though 
working  separately,  and  sometimes  holding  the  attitude 
of  rivals  to  each  other,  it  will  be  convenient  to  regard 
their  work  as  a  unit,  and  speak  only  of  combined 
results.  Before  Carey  sailed,  an  attempt,  fortunately  a 
failure,  had  been  made  to  set  up  the  Establishment  in 
India,  and  so  with  Parliament  to  manage  missions. 
So  long  as  Christianity  was  excluded  by  law,  churchmen 
sat  with  folded  hands  viewing  the  abominations  and 
woes  of  idolatry  with  slight  concern.  But,  soon  after 
the  amendment  of  the  Company's  charter  in  1813,  a 
movement  was  started  to  lay  foundations  for  the  Gospel 
in  each  of  the  three  chief  cities  ;  in  due  season  various 
other  subordinate  points  were  occupied,  and  ever  since 
the  work  has  been  spreading  in  all  directions,  until  now 
in  almost  every  province,  north,  south,  east,  and  west, 
English  Episcopacy  is  found  acting  upon  the  aggressive 
against  heathenism  with  all  manner  of  weapons,  and 
constitutes  one  of  the  chief  factors  in  the  coming  evan- 
gelization of  the  land.  In  Madras,  work  was  begun  as 
early  as  1815,  in  Calcutta  the  next  year,  the  year  fol- 
lowing in  Benares  and  in  Ceylon;  in  Bombay  in  1820, 
etc.  Among  the  chaplains  who  performed  distinguished 
services  may  be  named  such  as  Claudius  Buchanan 
(1796-1808,)  and  Henry  Martyn  (1805-18).  Bishop 
Heber  commenced  his  brief  but  brilliant  career  in  1825. 
The  Church  work  finds  the  climax  of  results  in  the 
south,  with  Tinnevelly  as  the  center,  where  in  1838  vil- 


MISSIONS  IN   INDIA.  169 

lage  movements  to  Christianity  set  in,  and  within  about 
four  years  18,000  cast  away  their  idols.  In  this  district 
more  than  1,000  villages  contain  true  disciples  of  Jesus. 
In  Madras  also  the  work  has  progressed  so  far  that  it  is 
committed  wholly  to  native  hands.  The  Khols  of  Chota 
Nagpore,  a  province  of  Bengal,  have  supplied  some  50,- 
ooo  converts  to  the  Propagation  Society  and  Gossner's 
(German)  Society  together.  Combining  all  the  missions 
from  Ceylon  to  the  Khyber  Pass,  we  have  such  large 
figures  as  these :  The  Church  of  England  is  represented 
by  244  ordained  missionaries,  270  ordained  natives  and 
890  native  lay  preachers,  76,800  communicants,  and 
216,000  native  Christians. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  American  Board  commissioned 
five  men  for  India  in  1812,  and  after  months  of  greatest 
uncertainty  and  embarrassment,  work  was  opened  in 
Bombay.  This  proved  to  be  a  barren  field,  but  work  of 
all  kinds  was  pushed  with  the  utmost  vigor  of  faith  and 
love.  In  the  forties  occurred  an  outburst  of  Hindu  op- 
position, in  alarm  over  the  encroachments  of  the  new  re- 
ligion. The  pagan  press  was  employed  with  such  ardor, 
that  at  one  time  ten  papers  and  magazines  were  in  full 
blast  in  the  effort  to  save  the  temples  and  priests  from 
ruin.  In  1847  the  Bible  was  issued  in  Marathi.  In  1831 
a  mission  was  opened  in  Ahmednagar  175  miles  back 
from  Bombay,  to  which  several  stations  have  since  been 
added.  Ceylon  was  entered  by  five  men  in  1815,  and 
the  government  was  found  favorable  to  their  designs. 
They  were  allowed  the  use  of  certain  churches  and 
glebes  left  behind  by  the  Catholic  Portuguese,  and  the 
Bible  had  been  translated  into  Tamil  by  the  Dutch  while 
in  possession  of  the  island.  Reinforcements  came  within 


170  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

four  years,  and  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  revivals 
frequent  and  extensive  were  enjoyed.  In  1834  the  nar- 
row strait  was  crossed,  and  to  the  Tamils  on  the  conti- 
nent the  Gospel  was  carried.  Madura  was  chosen  as  the 
seat  of  a  mission,  and  ever  since  has  proved  a  fruitful 
field.  Some  years  later  came  a  fierce  struggle  with  caste, 
with  a  serious  falling  away  for  a  season,  but  ending  in 
defeat  for  those  who  would  maintain  between  brethren 
barriers  of  pride  and  prejudice.  In  Madras  (1836-51) 
a  large  printing  establishment  was  kept  busy  pouring  out 
a  varied  Christian  literature.  This  society  has  now  upon 
Indian  soil  three  missions,  with  536  stations  and  out- 
stations,  manned  by  89  American  laborers,  and  1,600 
natives,  of  whom  74  are  preachers.  The  churches  num- 
ber no  and  the  church  members  12,743,  the  native 
Christians  34,000,  the  schools  525,  and  the  scholars 
28,191. 

With  the  first  missionaries  of  the  American  Board 
Judson  had  crossed  the  ocean,  but  before  reaching  Cal- 
cutta had  so  changed  his  opinions  as  to  make  it  neces- 
sary to  change  also  his  ecclesiastical  connections.  It  was 
as  a  Baptist  that  he  set  foot  on  shore  in  Rangoon  in  July 
of  1813.  Burma  was  then  wholly  pagan,  and  the  gov- 
ernment was  one  of  the  most  cruel  and  tyrannical  to  be 
found  even  in  the  Orient.  But  for  all  this,  it  was  a 
country  more  tolerable  for  those  who  would  introduce 
the  gospel  than  the  dominions  ruled  by  the  "  Christian  " 
East  India  Company.  It  was  the  lot  of  this  gifted,  and 
most  heroic,  and  devoted  servant  of  God  to  have  his 
path  beset  almost  to  the  end  of  his  life  with  appalling 
difficulties,  and  perils,  and  sufferings  as  great  as  any  ever 
endured  by  any  herald  of  the  cross  in  heathen  lands. 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  171 

From  among  the  Burmans  proper  he  saw  little  fruit  from 
his  toils,  and  this  mainly  because  of  the  determined  and 
ruthless  opposition  of  the  powers  that  were.  He  found 
a  people  numbering  perhaps  8,000,000,  and  occupying 
some  300,000  square  miles.  Buddhism  was  the  domin- 
ant faith,  but  among  the  numerous  aboriginal  tribes,  like 
the  Shans,  Karens,  etc.,  a  gross  devil  worship  prevailed. 
For  several  years  Judson  was  left  to  endure  alone,  that  is 
with  only  his  wife  to  cheer  and  strengthen,  the  famous 
Ann  Hasseltine,  a  woman  for  intellectual  gifts  and  spir- 
itual graces,  for  courage,  resolution,  and  fervor  of  love, 
a  worthy  helpmeet.  The  tedious  time  of  waiting  was 
occupied  in  study  of  the  language,  preparation  of  tracts, 
etc.,  and  in  work  upon  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures, 
meanwhile  seeking  in  vain  for  the  royal  permission  to 
begin  openly  to  proclaim  Christ  to  the  people.  It  was 
during  this  period  that  when  asked  concerning  the  out- 
look he  replied  :  "  It  is  as  bright  as  the  promises  of 
God."  And  again,  when  inquired  of  in  relation  to  re- 
sults, the  answer  was :  "  Wait  twenty  years  and  then 
look  this  way  again."  After  six  years  the  first  helpers 
came  from  America,  and  the  first  convert  was  baptized. 
In  1824  the  first  Burman  war  broke  out,  and,  suspected 
of  being  a  spy  in  the  interests  of  Britain,  he  was  arrested, 
and  for  two  years  constantly  faced  death  from  fever, 
heat,  hunger,  and  brutal  treatment  in  filthy  prisons ;  for 
seventeen  months  wearing  three,  and  part  of  the  time 
five,  pairs  of  fetters.  During  this  terrible  scene  of  trial 
his  wife  exerted  herself  in  his  behalf  in  every  possible 
way,  ministering  to  his  wants  and  seeking  his  release, 
44  walking  miles  in  feeble  health,  in  the  darkness  of  night 
or  under  the  burning  sun,  much  of  the  time  with  a  babe 


172  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

in  her  arms."  Such  was  the  strain  to  body  and  spirit, 
that  not  long  after  her  husband  was  set  at  liberty  and 
the  war  was  over,  a  deadly  fever  set  in  and  ended  her 
career  upon  earth.  During  an  ensuing  period  of  confu- 
sion and  uncertainty  the  mission  was  moved  about  be- 
tween Rangoon,  Amherst  and  Maulmain.  In  1827  other 
missionaries  arrived,  among  them  Mr.  Boardman,  and 
presently  work  was  commenced  among  the  Karens,  a 
tribe  justly  famous  in  Christian  annals  for  its  readiness 
to  receive  the  truth.  In  1834  the  translation  of  the 
Bible  was  ready  for  use,  and  an  addition  of  fifteen  was 
made  to  the  working  force.  Judson  survived  till  1850, 
two  years  afterwards  the  second  Burmese  war  befell, 
forced  upon  the  British  by  the  pride  and  presumption  of 
the  king ;  with  a  third  conflict  produced  in  a  similar 
way  by  King  Thebaw  in  1885,  which  ended  in  the  an- 
nexation of  Burma  to  India.  In  these  results  is  to  be 
found  the  monument  to  this  illustrious  soldier  of  the 
cross,  who  risked  all  for  his  Master.  And  who  shall  say 
that  the  achievement  is  not  well  worth  all  the  cost  ?  The 
mission  force  in  Burma  consists  of  2,704  persons,  includ- 
ing 205  ordained  natives,  the  schools  number  561  with 
18,710  scholars,  and  the  churches  713,  of  which  562  are 
self-supporting,  with  a  membership  of  41,147.  The  na- 
tive contributions  reach  $90,000  annually.  The  native 
Christians  number  some  92,000.  The  Propagation  So- 
ciety, the  Berlin  Society,  the  English  Wesleyaus,  and 
the  American  Methodists,  are  also  engaged  in  the  evan- 
gelization of  Burma,  with  a  total  of  16  missionaries, 
6  native  laborers,  and  7,577  communicants. 

The  English  Wesleyans,  though  so  intensely  busy  seek- 
ing the  complete  redemption  of  Great  Britain,  were  yet 


MISSIONS  IN  INDIA.  173 

also  not  strangers  to  zeal  for  missions  in  the  broader  sense. 
Coke  had  been  appointed  superintendent  for  all  world- 
wide schemes  of  propagandizing.  Burning  with  desire  to 
minister  to  the  needs  of  the  heathen,  he  had  offered  to 
give  ;£6,ooo  to  found  a  mission  in  Ceylon,  and  in  1813 
the  Conference  had  appointed  him  and  six  more  to  pro- 
ceed thither.  He  died  upon  the  long  voyage ;  the  others 
soon  fixed  themselves  at  Colombo  and  elsewhere,  gave 
their  energies  with  fulness  of  devotion  to  what  their  hands 
found  to  do,  and  were  rewarded  by  seeing  souls  turning 
to  righteousness.  In  1817  Madras  was  entered  in  the 
Lord's  name,  and  later  Bangalore,  Trichinopoly,  My- 
sore and  Seringapatam  were  occupied.  Later  still  mis- 
sionaries were  sent  into  Hyderabad,  the  Mohammedan 
state  (Nizam's  Dominions);  to  Calcutta  also,  Benares, 
Lucknow,  etc. ,  in  northern  India.  At  the  end  of  eighty 
years  from  the  first  of  the  pioneers,  this  body  of  believers 
has  in  this  broad  field  421  missionaries  and  assistants, 
proclaiming  Christ  in  about  635  preaching  places,  with  a 
band  of  3, 240  evangelists,  catechists,  local  preachers,  etc. 
The  "full  and  accredited"  members  number  14,955, 
and  the  attendants  on  public  worship  40,932.  The 
schools  number  803  and  the  scholars  53,781. 

It  was  an  event  of  no  ordinary  importance  for  the  land 
of  the  Hindus  when,  in  1829,  the  Church  of  Scotland 
appointed  Alexander  Duff  to  open  work  in  behalf  of  the 
perishing  millions.  For  here  was  a  remarkable  person- 
ality, a  man  of  tremendous  energy,  full  of  enthusiasm 
and  holy  zeal.  Calcutta  was  chosen  as  the  scene  of  his 
life  labors,  which  continued  for  almost  fifty  years.  His 
special  design  was  to  open  a  collegiate  institute,  in 
which  the  youth  of  India  could  gain  the  higher  educa- 


174  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

tion  (a),  with  English  rather  than  the  vernacular  as  the 
medium  for  giving  instruction  in  western  sciences,  and 
(b)  with  the  Bible  everywhere  in  the  forefront.  It  was 
a  shocking  innovation  to  many,  but  he  carried  his  point 
and  succeeded  so  wondrously  that  the  learned  Oriental- 
ists owned  themselves  beaten,  and  gave  up  the  fight  for 
Sanscrit  as  the  best  language  for  all  higher  uses.  Other 
similar  institutions  were  founded  in  Bombay  by  Wil- 
son, another  missionary  of  great  eminence,  by  An- 
derson in  Madras,  and  by  Hislop  in  Nagpore,  the  latter 
receiving  the  gift  of  $13,000  from  an  officer  in  the 
Indian  army.  In  1843  came  the  disruption  in  the  Scot- 
tish church,  whereby  the  Free  Church  came  into  ex- 
istence, and  became  heir  to  all  the  missionaries  then 
in  the  field,  though  the  property  was  retained  by  the  Es- 
tablishment. A.  number  of  the  educational  institutions 
were  soon  duplicated ;  both  divisions  pushed  forward  the 
work  of  evangelization  with  commendable  vigor,  and, 
ever  since,  each  has  often  provoked  the  other  to  good 
works.  Probably  more  than  any  others,  these  two  bodies 
have  pushed  the  intellectual  phases  of  Christianity,  and 
as  many  judge  sometimes  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
spiritual.  The  Established  Church,  beginning  just  when 
the  British  nation  was  awakening  to  a  sense  of  its  obliga- 
tions to  its  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  subjects,  has  ex- 
pended  the  bulk  of  its  energies  upon  them.  Twelve  prin- 
cipal stations  are  maintained  in  various  regions  between 
the  Himalayas  and  the  Cape,  with  27  European  and  145 
native  agents,  1,998  communicants  and  9,727  native  Chris- 
tians, 178  schools  and  8,278  scholars.  The  Free  Church 
is  represented  by  42  ordained  missionaries  and  10  or- 
dained natives,  and  a  total  force  of  542.  The  communi- 


MISSIONS  IN  INDIA.  175 

cants  number  2,186,  the  adherents  about  as  many  more, 
the  schools  191,  and  the  scholars  13,482. 

The  Presbyterians  of  America  until  1870  were  largely 
connected  with  the  American  Board,  but  as  far  back  as 
1833,  the  year  in  which  India  was  opened  to  the  entrance 
of  the  gospel,  a  company  of  missionaries  was  sent  to  the 
Northwest  Provinces  and  the  Punjab,  the  latter  at  the 
time  constituting  the  kingdom  of  the  fanatical  Sikhs, 
with  Runjeet  Singh  the  Lion  as  their  ruler.  One  station 
after  another  was  occupied  until  the  line  stretched  over 
some  900  miles,  or  from  Allahabad  to  Rawal  Pindi,  not 
far  from  Khyber  Pass,  and  with  Lahore,  Lodiana  and 
Fategarh  among  the  important  centers.  The  work  was 
much  hindered  by  the  two  bloody  Sikh  wars  in  the  for- 
ties, while  during  the  Mutiny  not  only  was  much  prop- 
erty destroyed,  but  three  missionaries,  with  their  wives 
and  children,  were  captured  and  put  to  death.  It  was 
the  next  year,  and  as  a  result  of  such  dreadful  experi- 
ences, that  the  Lodiana  mission  sent  out  to  Christendom 
a  pathetic  call  to  prayer  for  the  world's  conversion,  sug- 
gesting the  opening  days  of  January  as  a  fitting  period, 
and  thus  originated  the  "Week  of  Prayer."  With  all  the 
other  instrumentalities  employed  to  rescue  the  individual 
soul  and  to  construct  all  manner  of  Christian  institutions, 
special  prominence  has  been  given  to  work  in  zenanas 
and  among  lepers.  Including  Kolhapur,  in  Central  In- 
dia, so  intimately  associated  with  Rev.  R.  G.  Wilder,  the 
mission  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  North,  includes  46 
ordained  Americans  and  29  ordained  natives,  50  lay  mis- 
sionaries, and  a  total  force  of  558.  In  the  35  churches 
are  3,690  members,  and  in  the  162  schools  7,780  schol- 
ars. 


176  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

It  is  more  than  doubtful  if  the  history  of  missions 
contains  a  chapter  more  remarkable  in  all  its  parts  than 
the  one  which  relates  to  the  work  of  the  American  Bap- 
tists among  the  Telugus.  Of  this  people  there  are  some 
20,000,000,  located  for  the  most  part  in  southern  India, 
and  the  portion  now  under  view  are  found  dwelling  to 
the  north  of  Madras,  not  far  from  the  Bay  of  Bengal. 
The  first  missionary  went  out  in  1835,  but  did  not  un- 
dertake work  in  Nellore  until  four  years  after.  Obstacles 
of  all  sorts,  and  unusually  great,  even  for  India,  were 
met  with.  So  rigid  were  caste  rules  that  it  was  scarcely 
possible  to  enter  the  houses.  Men,  too,  were  lacking  as 
well  as  funds,  and  so  the  mission  long  hovered  between 
life  and  death,  while  at  home  more  than  once,  after 
serious  discussion,  the  decision  was  imminent  to  retire 
from  the  field.  At  the  end  of  two  decades,  only  one 
native  assistant  could  be  reported,  one  church  with  nine 
members,  and  two  schools  with  63  pupils.  After  twelve 
years  of  discouraging  toil,  Mr.  Jewett  came  home  in 
1863  worn  out  and  in  feeble  health,  was  informed  how 
the  Society  felt,  and  was  asked  for  his  opinion.  His 
heroic  reply  has  become  historic:  "Well,  brethren,  I 
do  not  know  what  your  mind  is,  but  if  the  Lord  restores 
my  health,  I  am  going  back  to  live,  and  if  need  be  to 
die,  among  the  Telugus."  And  this  was  the  conclusion 
reached  :  "  Then  we  must  send  a  man  over  to  give  you 
a  Christian  burial."  Two  years  later  Rev.  J.  E.  Clough 
was  on  the  ground,  and  found  but  twenty-five  converts 
after  thirty  years  of  endeavor,  while  four  other  societies 
in  the  same  general  field  were  no  better  off.  But  pres- 
ently a  change  began  to  appear.  A  church  was  organ- 
ized at  Ongole  which  in  ten  years  had  a  membership  of 


MISSIONS   IN   INDIA.  177 

8,761,  while  in  the  entire  mission  were  3,832  communi- 
cants. Then  ensued  several  terrible  years  of  combined 
flood,  cholera,  and  famine,  the  latter  so  severe  as  to  de- 
stroy some  6,000,000  lives.  Food  was  furnished  by  the 
government,  and  extensive  public  works  were  constructed 
to  supply  labor,  and  Mr.  Clough,  who  had  formerly 
been  an  engineer,  was  put  in  charge  of  a  portion.  By 
1878  the  wholesale  demand  for  baptism  had  become 
irresistible.  The  applicants  were  turned  away,  the  day 
of  trial  was  postponed,  and  the  examinations  were  made 
most  searching,  but  in  spite  of  all,  in  six  weeks  8,691 
were  admitted  to  the  churches,  2,222  in  a  single  day. 
In  one  day  1,000  came  to  the  compound  of  the  Ongole 
station  and  gave  up  their  idols.  And  ever  since  the 
work  has  gone  on  in  similar  fashion,  and  the  interest 
has  spread  in  all  directions.  In  1892  the  baptisms 
numbered  3,398.  These  hosts  of  converts  were  mainly 
from  the  lowest  of  the  people,  though  not  a  few  belong 
to  the  higher  castes  and  some  are  Brahmans.  According 
to  the  latest  returns  this  "Lone  Star"  mission  has  96 
members  from  America,  of  whom  39  are  men,  66  or- 
dained natives  and  a  total  force  of  1,209.  The  116 
churches  have  a  membership  of  55,210,  while  11,918 
scholars  are  found  in  the  636  schools.  Evidently,  the 
efforts  to  evangelize  the  Telugus  are  not  a  "  failure." 

The  American  Methodists  were  somewhat  later  in  en- 
tering the  boundless  Indian  field.  Though  an  appro- 
priation for  the  purpose  was  made  in  1852,  it  was  four 
years  later  before  Rev.  William  Butler  was  ready  to 
break  ground.  The  Northwest  Provinces  were  chosen 
as  the  district,  and  Bareilly  as  the  center.  But 
scarcely  had  he  made  a  beginning  when  the  Mutiny 


178  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

broke  out,  and  he  was  compelled  to  flee  for  his  life. 
When  the  terror  was  over  reinforcements  came,  the  first 
convert  was  baptized  in  1859,  and  steady  progress  has 
ever  since  been  made.  In  1870  William  Taylor  began 
work  in  southern  India,  and  since  then  the  entire  super- 
vision of  Methodist  evangelism  in  all  these  parts  has  been 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Bishop  Thoburn.  The  women 
of  this  church  are  urging  forward  such  lines  of  labor 
as  relate  to  zenanas  and  hospitals.  For  three  years  past 
the  indications  have  steadily  increased  that  by  the 
thousand  and  ten  thousand  from  henceforth  the  Hindus 
of  northern  India  are  to  flock  to  the  gates  of  the  king- 
dom. In  1862  the  number  of  church  members  was  but 
96,  ten  years  later  it  had  increased  to  758,  ten  years 
later  still  to  3,138,  and  in  1902  to  30,100,  and  includ- 
ing probationers  to  72,128. 

Of  the  German  societies,  Basle  was  the  first  to  des- 
patch missionaries  to  aid  in  the  conquest  of  southern 
Asia,  and  sent  them  forth  the  year  after  the  unwilling 
Company  was  compelled  to  tolerate  their  presence,  that 
is,  in  1834.  The  district  chosen  lies  far  to  the  south 
upon  the  Malabar  Coast.  A  force  of  48  Europeans  is 
maintained,  with  138  native  pastors,  evangelists  and 
catechists.  The  communicants  number  8,134  and  the 
native  Christians  15,054.  In  the  numerous  schools  are 
found  10,405  pupils.  Gossner's  Society  followed  in 
1845,  choosing  Chota  Nagpore  as  a  field,  and  the  de- 
graded Khols  as  the  objects  of  self-denying  endeavor. 
For  years  no  fruit  appeared,  the  Mutiny  brought  much 
disaster,  while  in  1869  came  a  lamentable  schism.  But 
before  this  latter  calamity  befell,  the  mission  had  been 
visited  by  a  work  of  grace  "overwhelming,  and  rarely 


MISSIONS  IN  INDIA.  179 

experienced."  The  converts  now  number  some  30,000. 
The  Leipsic  Society  fell  heir  to  the  Danish  Tranquebar 
mission  in  1847,  and  in  that  vicinity  has  ever  since  been 
active.  Thirty-seven  missionaries  are  found  ministering 
to  about  13,500  communicants,  and  to  8,201  children  in 
the  schools. 

Especial  mention  must  be  made  of  the  missions  of 
certain  societies  which  have  begun  work  in  times  com- 
paratively recent,  or  whose  working  force  has  been  but 
small.  The  Evangelical  Lutherans  (General  Synod) 
entered  India  in  1842  occupying  Guntur  in  the  Madras 
Presidency.  Upwards  of  6,000  children  are  taught  in 
the  schools,  and  nearly  7,500  communicants  are  gathered 
in  the  churches.  In  1855  the  United  Presbyterians  of 
the  United  States  appeared  in  India,  and  five  years  later 
their  ecclesiastical  brethren  of  the  same  name  in  Scot- 
land followed,  while  the  two  together  chose  the  north- 
western portion  of  the  great  peninsula  as  a  work  field, 
and  have  cultivated  the  same  with  thoroughness  until 
this  day.  The  toil  of  the  one  has  been  rewarded  with 
3,894  church  members,  a  Christian  community  number- 
ing 10,632,  and  7,855  pupils  in  the  schools;  and  the 
other  with  787  church  members  and  5,413  pupils.  The 
American  Reformed  (Dutch)  having  co-operated  with 
the  American  Board  from  the  beginning,  determined  in 
1858  to  engage  in  independent  work,  and  the  Arcot 
mission  in  Madras  Presidency  was  turned  over  to  them. 
Nor  has  this  portion  of  the  Lord's  heritage  suffered  in 
the  least  in  their  hands.  The  double  task  of  converting 
and  training  has  been  diligently  and  wisely  attended  to, 
and  with  these  results:  Communicants  2,442,  native 
Christians  10,060,  pupils  in  the  schools  5,517. 


l8o  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

No  statement  of  what  has  been  undertaken  for  the 
evangelization  of  India  would  be  at  all  complete,  which 
did  not  include  some  mention  of  medical  missions,  and 
woman's  work,  in  both  of  which  the  last  two  decades 
have  seen  a  remarkable  enlargement.  The  female  half 
of  the  population  is  found  in  a  condition  especially 
deplorable,  and  utterly  inaccessible  to  all  ordinary  agen- 
cies. As  far  back  as  1835,  Miss  Wakefield,  a  missionary 
sent  out  by  the  Society  for  Promoting  Female  Education 
in  the  East,  succeeded  in  entering  two  or  three  zenanas 
in  Calcutta,  and  other  women  followed  until  in  1843  one 
was  appointed  for  this  specific  work.  After  the  Mutiny 
came  a  marked  enlargement.  Mrs.  Mullens  also  aroused 
a  deep  interest ;  various  societies  were  organized  to  carry 
light  and  joy  to  Hindu  homes,  and  now  twenty-two  are 
united  in  the  sacred  task.  In  1890  the  number  of 
foreign  and  Eurasian  women  employed  was  711,  with 
3,278  native  Christians  in  co-operation  ;  40,518  zenanas 
were  open  with  32,659  pupils;  in  1,673  schools,  of 
which  1 66  were  boarding  schools,  there  were  71,500 
pupils,  or  including  those  in  zenanas,  104,159. 

It  is  to  the  true  glory  of  the  government  that  it  has 
undertaken  so  much  upon  the  physical  side  of  the  public 
weal,  and  its  abundant  good  works  in  this  direction 
inure  to  the  advancement  of  Christianity  in  the  land. 
There  are  in  all  1,641  public  institutions  for  the  relief  of 
suffering  and  the  healing  of  disease,  in  which  in  1893 
were  treated  265,000  in-door  and  11,987,000  out-door 
patients.  In  48  hospitals  and  dispensaries  for  women, 
9  of  them  being  in  native  states,  412,591  received  treat- 
ment. There  are  besides  26  lunatic  asylums,  and  23 
leper  hospitals.  Vaccination  is  compulsory,  and  some 


MISSIONS   IN    INDIA.  l8l 

5,700,000  a  year  are  shielded  from  a  disease  which  car- 
ries off  about  125,000  annually.  In  1885  the  Countess 
Dufferin  formed  the  Association  for  Supplying  Female 
Medical  Aid  to  the  Women  of  India,  and  so  generous 
was  the  response  in  Great  Britain,  and  elsewhere,  to 
her  appeals  that  a  fund  amounting  to  ^81,000  (#410,- 
ooo),  is  now  in  hand,  103  women  with  thorough  medi- 
cal training  are  at  work  in  its  8 1  hospitals  and  54  dis- 
pensaries, while  257  more  are  under  training  as  nurses 
and  physicians  in  India,  and  others  also  in  England ;  and 
in  1892  nearly  460,000  women,  afflicted  with  bodily  ills, 
received  counsel  and  medicine.  The  number  of  mis- 
sionary physicians  is  200,  and  1 1 1  of  them  are  women. 
The  first  woman  to  enter  this  calling  was  Miss  Swain, 
who  in  1869  was  sent  out  by  her  sisters  of  the  American 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  though  she  had  been 
before  appointed  to  the  same  work  by  the  Woman's 
Union  Missionary  Society,  and  opened  a  hospital  in 
Bareilly  in  the  Northwest  Provinces.  It  was  not  long 
after  that  the  nawab  of  Rampore,  a  Mohammedan  prince, 
bestowed  for  her  use  the  munificent  donation  of  forty- 
two  acres,  together  with  certain  large  buildings  worth 
$15,000.  The  rapid  development  of  woman's  work, 
which  is  doing  so  much  to  hasten  the  day  of  redemp- 
tion to  truth  and  righteousness,  appears  in  the  fact  that 
while  at  the  first  Conference  at  Allahabad,  1872-3,  the 
sex  was  altogether  unrepresented,  at  the  second  held  ten 
years  later,  at  Calcutta,  there  were  181  women,  to  249 
men  among  the  members.  However,  though  two  had 
been  appointed  to  prepare  papers,  it  was  not  thought 
proper  to  have  them  presented  by  female  lips.  But  ten 
years  later  still,  at  Bombay,  where  only  263  men  were  in 


1 82  A   HUNDRED    YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

attendance,  and  276  women,  the  latter  were  admitted  to 
full  equality  in  every  particular. 

These  figures  which  follow  will  show  some  of  the 
results  accruing  at  the  close  of  a  century  from  all  the 
co-operating  influences  and  instrumentalities  and  methods 
of  work.  They  relate  to  the  facts  as  these  existed  at  the 
close  of  1900,  gathered  mainly  from  the  last  Indian 
Census  and  Beach's  Geography  and  Atlas  of  Protestant 
Missions.  Both  Burma  and  Ceylon  are  included. 

The  number  of  societies  at  work  is  101,  of  which  41 
are  British,  36  American  and  9  German.  The  mission- 
ary force  numbers  4,486,  Great  Britain  sending  2,555, 
America  1,395  and  Germany  380.  Of  the  1,950  men 
1,339  are  ordained.  Of  the  2,536  women  1,236  are 
unmarried.  In  the  figures  given  219  physicians  are  in- 
cluded, of  whom  122  are  women ;  119  are  British,  and 
93  American.  Of  the  339  hospitals  and  dispensaries  217 
are  British,  95  American  and  13  German.  With  the 
missionaries  are  associated  28,136  native  toilers,  of  whom 
about  1,350  are  ordained.  The  entire  body  of  evangel  - 
izers  number  33,122.  The  10,124  mission  schools  con- 
tain 448,185  scholars;  British  Christians  caring  for  283,- 
6 10,  Americans  for  140,026,  and  Germans  24,549. 

The  results  of  toil  appear  in  361,868  communicants; 
Americans  having  gathered  175,948,  British  121,673,  and 
Germans  64,247.  To  these  more  than  700,000  adherents 
are  to  be  added,  who  have  at  least  turned  from  idolatry  and 
identified  themselves  with  Gospel  influences.  Full  mem- 
bers and  native  Christians  together  number  1,062,478. 
But  in  addition  there  is  a  Roman  Catholic  population  of 
1,209,000,  and  571,327  known  as  Syrian,  or  St.  Thomas 
Christians.  If  all  are  included  who  have  in  any  consider- 
able degree  named  Christ,  the  total  rises  to  2,842,805. 


MISSIONS    IN    INDIA.  183 

It  may  seem  to  some  that  the  results  of  missionary  ef- 
fort in  India  are  discouragingly  and  scandalously  small 
at  the  end  of  a  hundred  years,  and  after  the  expenditure 
of  so  much  money,  and  the  toil  of  such  a  host  of  de- 
voted and  heroic  men  and  women.  Only  1,000,000 
(about  2,275,000,  if  Roman  Catholics  are  included). 
But  these  considerations  must  be  taken  into  account. 
The  territory  under  view  is  so  vast.  The  Roman  Em- 
pire was  smaller  by  some  300,000  square  miles,  and  yet 
that  realm  of  the  Caesars  was  not  conquered  until  after 
three  centuries.  The  British  dominions  in  southern 
Asia  approach  Europe  for  area,  and  that  continent  re- 
quired a  millennium  of  most  arduous  endeavor  before 
.heathenism  was  banished.  And  even  Great  Britain  was 
not  evangelized  in  less  than  ten  generations  (600-900  A. 
D.)  Then  the  population  is  great  beyond  conception, 
approximating  to  300,000,000,  or  one-fifth  of  the  human 
race,  or  three  times  greater  than  that  of  Rome  when  at 
her  greatest.  In  addition,  we  must  remember  what  a 
heterogeneous  and  chaotic  mass  of  races,  religions,  and 
languages  are  found  between  the  Himalayas  and  the 
Cape.  How  herculean  the  task  of  mastering  these 
tongues,  translating  into  them  the  Word  of  Life,  and 
creating  a  Christian  literature.  An  ancient  and  complex 
civilization  was  in  full  possession,  and  was  thoroughly 
permeated  by  a  religious  faith  and  practice  much  older 
than  Christianity.  Or  rather,  if  possible,  made  harder 
to  uproot  by  long  contact  and  struggle  with  Mohammed- 
anism, one  of  the  very  sturdiest  foes  the  gospel  ever  met. 
Then  there  are  the  aboriginal  tribes  sunk  in  the  lowest 
depths  of  ignorance  and  superstition,  with  the  pariahs, 
whose  degradation  is  scarcely  exceeded  by  that  of  the 


184  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

Hottentot,  or  Patagonian.  Probably  caste  presents  as 
formidable  a  barrier  to  the  advent  and  increase  of  New 
Testament  virtues  as  any  social  or  religious  institution 
to  be  found  upon  earth. 

As  if  these  hindrances  were  not  enough,  India  lies 
mainly  in  the  tropics,  the  heat  is  almost  unendurable  by 
foreigners,  and  great  loss  of  life  has  marked  the  history 
of  missions.  Here  is  no  mean  rival  to  Africa  as  a  cem- 
etery for  such  as  counted  not  their  lives  dear,  if  their 
Lord  might  be  glorified  by  the  redemption  of  souls  from 
sin.  Moreover,  the  first  half  of  the  century  was  marked 
by  frequent  wars  and  general  commotion,  such  as  the 
struggles  with  Hyder  Ali  and  Tippoo  Sultan  and  the 
ferocious  Marathis,  the  two  campaigns  against  the 
Sikhs  (1841-9)  and  the  three  against  the  Burmese,  and 
the  Mutiny.  About  half  of  India  is  yet  in  the  hands  of 
native  princes,  either  Hindu  or  Moslem;  until  1841 
Christianity  was  wholly  excluded  from  these,  and  has  been 
much  opposed  and  hindered  since  that  date,  and  even 
yet  is  under  the  ban  in  some  of  them.  But  worse  was 
the  insane  and  unaccountable  opposition  of  the  East 
India  Company,  which  lasted  almost  to  the  end  of 
Carey's  life,  and  its  effects  for  evil  were  felt  for  two  de- 
cades longer.  Though  the  representatives  of  Christianity 
were  "interlopers"  subject  to  imprisonment  and  trans- 
portation, and  when  their  presence  was  tolerated  were 
shamefully  fettered  and  muzzled,  the  abominations  of 
idolatry  were  countenanced  and  patronized  as  a  source 
of  gain.  Suttee  was  winked  at,  and  infanticide,  and 
hook-swinging,  and  Thuggism,  but  one  who  received 
Christian  baptism  might  be  robbed  of  his  property  in  the 
courts,  etc.  The  spectacle  of  the  representatives  of  a 


MISSIONS  IN   INDIA.  185 

Christian  nation  repudiating  and  scorning  the  religion 
they  professed  naturally  increased  the  odium  and  con- 
tempt already  cherished  towards  Christianity.  It  was 
not  until  after  1858  that  these  fearful  scandals  came  to 
an  end.  And  finally,  the  entire  century  just  past  has 
been  emphatically  a  period  of  pioneering,  exploring  and 
laying  of  foundations.  How  best  to  evangelize  the  na- 
tions was  an  art  long  since  lost  by  Christendom,  and 
costly  experiments  were  necessary  before  the  wisest 
methods,  and  the  most  potent  instrumentalities,  could  be 
fashioned  and  put  into  operation.  So  that  it  is  only  for 
about  a  generation  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  has  had 
a  fair  chance  to  reach  the  millions  of  India  and  work  its 
miracles  of  blessing.  Happily,  now  the  supreme  govern- 
ment is  conscientiously  neutral  in  matters  religious,  ex- 
cept that  while  each  one  may  worship  as  he  will,  human- 
ity, decency,  and  good  order  must  be  regarded.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  ere  long  the  shame  connected  with  the 
legal  support  given  to  the  traffic  in  opium  and  intoxica- 
ting liquors  may  cease,  that  child  marriage  may  be  for- 
bidden by  law,  and  the  nautch  dances  be  suppressed. 

These  peculiar  phenomena  appearing  in  connection 
with  the  progress  of  missions  in  this  strange  land  may 
well  be  noticed.  Not  all  the  multitudinous  races  are 
equally  susceptible  to  the  regenerating  influences  which 
have  been  brought  to  bear.  The  Aryan  and  Moslem 
portion  of  the  people  seem  to  be  farthest  from  salvation, 
while  the  great  majority  of  the  native  Christians  have 
come  from  the  lower  castes,  the  outcasts,  and  the  ab- 
original tribes.  Wherever  found,  the  Mohammedans  are 
notoriously  hard  to  reach  with  the  gospel  message, 
though  hundreds  have  listened,  believed,  and  honored 


l86  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

the  truth  in  their  lives.  One  of  this  class  has  recently 
published  a  list  containing  the  names  of  about  a  hundred 
and  twenty  converts  of  distinction,  of  whom  seventeen 
are  ordained  ministers,  and  from  northern  and  central 
India  alone.  Brahmans  who  accept  Jesus  as  redeemer 
and  king  are  also  few  and  far  between.  And  not 
strangely  either,  for  these  are  the  priests  and  literati  of 
Hinduism,  self-interest  is  involved,  and  they  represent 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees  of  Christ's  day.  So  far  back 
the  question  was  asked,  Have  any  of  the  rulers  or  of  the 
Pharisees  believed  on  Him  ?  And  it  has  always  been 
that,  not  many  wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many 
mighty,  not  many  noble,  are  called,  but  the  humble  and 
lowly  multitude  have  been  the  ones  to  receive  most  gladly 
the  gift  of  gifts.  It  is  always,  and  everywhere,  from  the 
lower  strata  upwards,  that  the  gospel  leaven  works. 
Nevertheless,  in  no  small  numbers  Brahmans  have  hum- 
bled themselves  to  obedience  and  trust,  and  are  adorn- 
ing the  gospel  by  godly  lives.  The  aboriginal  races 
(Dravidian,  etc.)  like  the  Tamils,  Telugus,  Khols,  and 
the  Karens  and  Shans  of  Burma,  have  supplied  a  rela- 
tively large  number  of  converts.  And  curiously,  it  is  the 
Madras  Presidency  which  has  furnished  the  bulk  of  the 
native  Christians  to  be  found  upon  Indian  soil.  While 
of  the  total  of  2,842,000,  in  Bengal  only  278,000  are 
found,  and  in  Bombay  but  220,000,  in  Madras,  of  which 
Tinnevelly  and  Travancore  form  a  part,  and  which  also 
holds  the  most  of  the  Telugus  and  Tamils,  almost  three- 
fourths  or  1,934,000,  have  been  persuaded  to  turn  from 
the  worship  of  idols  to  the  living  God. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR. 

THIS  continent  constitutes  the  greatest  of  all  mission 
fields.  That  is,  it  covers  by  far  the  largest  area,  though 
both  China  and  India  contain  a  much  larger  population. 
Besides,  no  such  vast  spaces  can  elsewhere  be  found 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  so  wholly  enshrouded  in  in- 
tellectual and  moral  darkness  so  dreadfully  dense.  For 
to  the  midnight  of  utter  ignorance,  and  superstition, 
and  beastly  vice,  is  added  the,  if  possible,  darker  mid- 
night of  extremest  barbarism  and  savagery.  Negro, 
Hottentot,  Bushman,  have  long  been  synonyms  for  the 
lowest  conditions  in  which  humanity  is  ever  found. 
And  to  crown  all,  it  was  in  this  most  benighted  and 
wretched  quarter  of  the  globe  that  the  slave  trade 
wrought  its  horrors  and  desolations.  And  therefore, 
though  for  these  and  other  reasons  possessing  peculiar 
claims  upon  Christendom  for  help,  Africa  supplies  the 
mission  field  which  is  difficult  and  discouraging  beyond 
any  other. 

After  Asia,  the  Dark  Continent  is  much  the  largest  of 
the  six.  The  length  is  not  far  from  5,000  miles  from 
north  to  south,  and  the  width  is  not  much  less.  The 
number  of  square  miles  of  surface  is  estimated  to  be  12,- 
000,000,  or  about  one-fourth  of  the  land  surface  of  the 
globe.  Asia  covers  some  17,000,000  square  miles,  and 
the  two  Americas  together  nearly  the  same.  The  United 
187 


l88  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

States  added  to  Australia  would  be  only  half  as  large  as 
Africa  alone,  while  Europe  is  only  a  pigmy  by  compari- 
son, is  only  one-third  as  large,  containing  but  4,000,- 
ooo.  As  the  most  striking,  as  well  as  the  most  un- 
fortunate physical  feature,  is  found  the  fact  that  the 
interminable  coast  line  is  so  nearly  unbroken,  is  indented 
by  so  few  bays,  and  hence  affords  so  few  harbors.  In 
this  particular  the  neighbor  continent  to  the  north  is  at 
the  furthest  remove.  For  while  the  circumference  of  the 
one  measures  but  15,000  miles,  the  other  is  longer  by 
4,000  miles,  though  the  area  is  only  one-third  as  great. 
It  follows  from  this  that  Africa  is  the  most  inaccessible 
of  the  earth's  great  land-spaces.  While  it  is  true  that 
no  good  roads  exist  between  the  borders  and  the  remote 
central  portipns,  and  the  jungles  are  dense,  all  travel 
must  be  on  foot  and  all  carrying  is  done  on  the  backs  of 
men,  and  though  the  tsetse  fly  is  deadly  to  horses  and 
cattle,  and  the  fever  almost  as  deadly  to  those  of  foreign 
birth,  and  cannibal  tribes  abound;  yet  the  serious 
absence  of  safe  anchorage  and  of  streams  navigable  from 
the  ocean  far  inland,  supply  the  chief  reason  for  the  long 
neglect  under  which  the  perishing  millions  have  lain. 
As  to  general  contour  the  surface  has  often,  and  well, 
been  compared  to  that  of  an  inverted  saucer.  Next  to 
the  sea  is  everywhere  a  low-lying  rim,  which  at  no  great 
distance  back  rises  to  mountain  ranges,  and  these  in- 
close a  boundless  plateau.  The  mean  elevation  is  greater 
than  that  of  either  Europe  or  Asia,  and  in  spite  of  their 
Alps  and  Himalayas.  The  altitude  of  South  Africa 
averages  about  2,000  feet,  and  of  the  north-central 
portions  about  4,000.  The  plateau  is  loftiest  in  the 
region  of  the  great  lakes.  Between  the  two  Nyanzas,  in 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  189 

a  distance  of  less  than  100  miles,  the  descent  is  2,300 
feet,  or  from  3,800  to  1,500.  The  highest  mountain 
summits  are  found  to  the  east  of  the  lakes,  Kilimanjaro 
and  Kenia  rising  to  18,000  feet. 

Africa  has  four  great  river  systems  which  taken 
together,  comprise  a  large  part  of  the  area  of  the  conti- 
nent. The  Kongo  carries  by  far  the  greatest  volume  of 
water  to  the  sea,  though  the  Nile  is  longest,  next  follow 
the  Niger  and  the  Zambesi,  with  the  Orange  not 
so  very  far  behind.  Rising  either  in  the  great  lakes, 
or  else  in  the  same  general  region,  of  the  four  streams 
one  flows  northward  to  the  Mediterranean,  two  empty 
their  floods  into  the  Atlantic,  and  the  other  ends  in  the 
Indian  Ocean.  But  these  and  all  lesser  rivers,  and  for 
precisely  the  same  reason,  are  absolutely  worthless  for 
navigation  between  the  outside  world  and  the  vast 
interior.  The  bulk  of  their  course  is  upon  the  elevated 
central  plateau,  from  which  they  must  descend  to  sea 
level,  and  besides  must  break  through  the  mountain 
barrier  which  about  the  entire  circumference  separates 
the  interior  from  the  coast  plain.  And  so,  for  a  long 
distance  during  the  lower  part  of  their  course,  rapids 
and  waterfalls  abound.  Thus  the  Nile  has  its  three  cat- 
aracts, and  its  Murchison  and  Ripon  Falls  farther  towards 
its  source,  the  Kongo  has  250  miles  of  broken  naviga- 
tion, the  Zambesi  has  its  Victoria  Falls,  etc.,  etc.  Three 
immense  areas  are  found  from  within  which  no  streams 
make  their  way  to  the  ocean.  One  is  the  famous 
Sahara,  which  stretches  from  the  Nile  to  the  Atlantic, 
and  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Sudan,  and  covers 
something  like  4,000,000  square  miles,  about  one-third 
of  the  entire  continent,  or  a  space  as  large  as  Europe. 


J9O  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

Another  lies  about  Lake  Chad,  and  a  third  about  Lake 
Ngami. 

The  remarkable  lake  system  found  in  east-central 
Africa  constitutes  one  of  the  leading  physical  features,  a 
collection  of  bodies  of  fresh  water  surpassed,  or 
equalled,  nowhere  except  in  our  own  country,  and  with 
only  our  Superior  greater  than  the  greatest  of  the  num- 
ber. Victoria  Nyanza  has  an  area  of  30,000  square 
miles  to  Huron's  20,000,  and  Tanganyika  has  an  area  of 
10,000.  One  other  characteristic  feature  may  be  men- 
tioned. Stretching  ten  degrees  north  of  the  equator  and 
ten  degrees  south,  and  entirely  across  the  continent,  say 
1,000  miles  by  2,500,  is  a  forest  great  and  terrible. 
Proceeding  north  or  south  from  this,  a  broad  stretch  of 
open  park-like  country  is  entered,  and  this  again  shades 
off  into  boundless  pastures,  both  towards  the  Desert  and 
the  Cape.  Next  in  order  lie  barren  regions,  Sahara  and 
Kalahari,  with  only  the  slightest  rainfall,  and  finally, 
whether  in  the  Barbary  States  or  in  the  southern  portions, 
agricultural  lands  are  found.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
equator  crosses  Africa  at  no  great  distance  below  the 
center,  and  hence  the  bulk  of  the  continent  is  inter- 
tropical.  The  climate  is  so  deadly  to  the  unacclimated 
on  account  of  the  extreme  heat,  taken  together  with  the 
dense  forests,  and  the  exceedingly  heavy  rainfall. 

As  to  the  population,  how  large  it  is,  nothing  what- 
ever is  certainly  known.  All  statements  made  concern- 
ing this  matter  are  at  best  but  guess  work,  and  the  esti- 
mates differ  by  several  scores  of  millions.  Thus,  it  has 
been  common  to  set  the  figure  at  200,000,000,  and 
sometimes  as  high  as  300,000,000,  while  others  would 
diminish  the  sum  by  half.  The  latest  calculations  made 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  191 

by  Wagner  and  Supan,  as  competent  statisticians  as  the 
world  contains,  give  164,000,000  as  the  most  probable 
number,  though  Ravenstein,  another  practised  and 
painstaking  authority,  would  reduce  it  to  130,000,000. 
According  to  the  Statesman's  Year  Book,  whose  judg- 
ment for  years  has  been  thought  to  approach  the  infal- 
lible, the  population  is  168,000,000.  Dividing  the 
whole  into  sections,  we  may  give  the  result  roughly  as 
follows:  north  Africa  20,000,000,  the  Sahara  region 
3,000,000,  north-tropical,  or  Sudan,  100,000,000, 
south-tropical  35,000,000,  and  South  Africa  5,000,000. 
It  will  be  profitable  to  take  note  of  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal divisions  existing  among  the  population  as  to  race. 
Accordingly  to  the  common  apprehension  all  native-born 
dwellers  in  Africa  are  Negroes,  than  which  nothing  can 
be  further  from  the  fact.  At  the  north  are  found  mil- 
lions of  Moors,  Berbers,  Arabs  and  Turks,  and  at  the 
northeast  other  millions  of  Copts,  Nubians  and  Abyssin- 
ians;  the  latter  sufficiently  black,  but  by  no  means 
Negroes.  The  genuine  Ethiopian  is  marked  by  wooley 
hair,  a  flat  nose,  thick  lips,  a  receding  forehead  and 
projecting  jaw,  a  flat  foot  and  long  heel,  and  his  home 
is  found  only  in  the  Sudan,  or  north-central  Africa,  to 
the  north  of  the  Kongo,  to  the  west  of  the  great  lakes. 
This  part  of  the  continent  is  most  thickly  inhabited,  and 
contains  nearly  half  of  the  population.  Further  south 
dwell  the  great  Bantu  race,  their  habitat  extending 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Indian  Ocean.  Beyond  these 
lies  the  country  of  the  Bushmen,  the  Kaffirs,  and  the 
Hottentots,  who  differ  radically  from  all  the  rest.  Dr. 
R.  N.  Gust,  an  excellent  authority,  gives  the  number  of 
African  languages  as  438,  with  153  dialects  in  addition. 


192  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

If  the  population  be  divided  according  to  religion, 
about  1,000,000  are  Jews  dwelling  largely  in  the  Bar- 
bary  States.  Of  Christians  there  are  some  8,000,000, 
of  whom  less  than  one-third  are  Roman  Catholics, 
found  for  the  most  part  in  Algeria  and  the  Portuguese 
settlements  in  Angola  and  Mozambique ;  something  over 
one-third  Protestants,  composed  mainly  of  British  and 
Dutch  colonists  in  South  Africa ;  and  the  rest  are  Abyssin- 
ians,  and  Copts  in  Egypt.  Then  nearly  one-third  of  the 
inhabitants  are  believed  to  be  Mohammedans.  These 
have  been  steadily  increasing  and  spreading  themselves 
for  nearly  twelve  centuries.  Entering  from  the  north- 
east as  traders  and  slave-stealers  they  have  pushed  across 
the  Sahara  and  up  the  Nile,  across  the  Red  Sea  and 
down  the  eastern  coast,  until  Islam  is  known  and  hon- 
ored as  far  as  the  Kongo  and  the  great  lakes,  in  Zanzi- 
bar, Mozambique,  and  even  in  Cape  Colony.  Probably 
40,000,000,  and  perhaps  60,000,000,  of  the  dwellers  in 
the  Dark  Continent  are  at  least  nominal  followers  of  the 
Prophet  of  Arabia,  and  have  adopted  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent  the  ideas  and  practices  of  the  Koran.  The  Arab 
portion  of  the  Moslems  represent  the  last  remnant  of  the 
former  host  of  slave-dealers,  and  their  work  takes  rank 
among  the  foremost  specimens  of  existing  inhumanity. 
These  pitiless  men-stealers  make  systematic  war  on  re- 
gion after  region,  with  wholesale  burning,  slaughter,  and 
capture.  The  surviving  victims  are  chained  together  in 
gangs  and  started  for  the  coast,  across  the  Great  Desert 
or  towards  Arabia.  Infants,  the  sick,  and  feeble,  are 
killed  without  ceremony,  and  it  is  alleged  that  not  more 
than  three  or  four  per  cent,  is  left  alive  at  the  dreadful 
journey's  end.  Finally,  not  far  from  two-thirds  of 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  193 

Africa's  millions  live  and  die  in  the  depths  of  abject 
paganism.  What  religion  they  have  is  but  a  degrading 
superstition.  No  god  higher  than  a  fetish  is  worshiped; 
they  offer  sacrifices  to  spirits,  and  wear  charms  to  ward 
off  evil,  and  to  secure  the  attainment  of  their  desires. 

A  few  words  are  in  order  concerning  the  twin  curses 
under  which  the  Negro,  the  Bantu  and  the  Hottentot 
alike  have  groaned  and  died  for  long  centuries,  and  for 
which  Christian  lands  are  mainly  responsible.  It  is  es- 
timated that  in  the  four  hundred  years  during  which  the 
slave  trade  lasted,  not  less  than  40,000,000  Africans 
were  seized  to  be  sold  into  slavery,  the  woes  and  tor- 
ments included  of  the  "  middle  passage."  The  bulk  of 
these  were  taken  from  about  four  thousand  miles  of  the 
western  coast.  Happily  that  day  of  general  sin  and 
shame  is  past.  But  another  form  of  ignominy  and  iniqu- 
ity, whose  result  to  Africa  is  perhaps  even  greater  for 
damage  and  woe,  remains  and  appears  to  be  on  the  in- 
crease. If  slavery  slew  its  thousands,  rum  is  leading  to 
destruction  its  tens  of  thousands  of  poor  victims.  The 
figures  rise  to  a  magnitude  which  is  amazing,  and  ap- 
palling. At  one  port  a  single  missionary,  and  50,000 
barrels  of  whiskey,  were  landed  at  the  same  time.  All 
vessels  bound  for  West  and  South  Africa,  coming  from 
Europe  and  America,  stop  at  Madeira.  And  this  is  the 
list  of  liquors  which  passed  through  in  one  week  !  28, 
ooo  cases  of  Irish  whisky;  30,000  cases  of  brandy; 
30,000  cases  of  Old  Tom ;  36,000  barrels  of  rum ; 
800,000  demijohns  of  rum ;  24,000  butts  of  rum ;  15,- 
ooo  barrels  of  absinthe ;  and  960,000  cases  of  gin. 
The  natives  so  ignorant  and  so  weak,  are  helpless  in  the 
presence  of  this  foe.  Their  evil  passions  are  still  further 


194  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

inflamed,  and  they  are  dragged  down  to  yet  deeper 
depths  of  degradation  and  savagery,  while  the  best  that 
the  handful  of  missionaries  are  able  to  accomplish  is  in 
great  danger  of  being  neutralized.  In  a  few  states  in 
South  Africa,  from  which  intoxicating  liquors  are  ex- 
cluded by  the  strong  arm  of  law,  the  progress  of  de- 
graded tribes  in  all  good  things  is  surprising,  and  many 
of  the  chiefs  would  gladly  keep  the  rum-seller  far  from 
their  borders  if  possessed  of  the  ability.  On  one  occa- 
sion seventy  chiefs  united  in  affirming  :  "  Brandy  is  a 
fearfully  bad  thing.  We  should  become  wild  animals 
here  if  it  were  introduced." 

Before  taking  up  the  story  of  the  modern  attempts  to 
evangelize  this  continent,  an  outline  of  the  course  of  dis- 
covery and  exploration  will  be  useful  as  an  introduction. 
Though,  through  Egypt  and  Carthage,  Africa  is  among 
the  oldest  of  lands,  in  the  Bible  narrative  sometimes  al- 
most rivaling  Asia,  yet,  taken  as  a  whole,  it  stands 
among  the  very  newest  and  least  known.  Only  twenty 
years  ago  the  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica  could  affirm 
with  truth :  "As  yet  the  only  portions  of  which  we  pos- 
sess any  approach  to  an  accurate  topographical  knowledge 
are,  Cape  Colony  and  Natal  under  British  rule  in  the 
south ;  the  French  colony  of  Algeria ;  the  Portuguese 
possession  of  Angola ;  and  Egypt  and  Tunis,  dependent 
on  Turkey,  in  the  north."  It  was  effectually  shut  up 
against  entrance  by  the  desert  upon  one  side,  and  by  the 
ocean  upon  the  other  three.  Ancient  navigators  did  not 
dare  to  venture  so  far  from  home  upon  such  pathless  wastes. 
One  of  the  greatest  physical  problems  for  the  philoso- 
phers of  antiquity  related  to  the  mysterious  Nile,  from 
whence  it  came,  and  the  cause  of  its  annual  overflow, 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  195 

without  which  Egypt  would  be  absolutely  barren  of  veg- 
etation and  uninhabitable,  but  by  whose  potent  influence 
almost  never  failing  it  was  the  garden  and  granary  of  the 
Grecian  and  Roman  world.  The  Arabs  appear  to  have 
made  voyages  of  discovery  at  an  early  date  down 
the  eastern  coast,  as  far  at  least  as  the  latitude  of  Mada- 
gascar. By  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  Port- 
uguese began  to  creep  gradually  southward  along  the  west- 
ern side,  reaching  Cape  Verd  in  1446,  Sierra  Leone  in 
1463,  the  mouth  of  the  Kongo  in  1484,  doubled  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  in  1486,  and  in  1497  Vasco  da  Gama  ex- 
plored the  east  coast  from  Natal  to  Cape  Guardafui.  In 
1652  the  Dutch  founded  a  colony  at  the  extreme  southern 
extremity  of  the  continent,  to  which  some  thousands  of 
Huguenots  were  added  after  their  expulsion  from  France. 
After  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  (i  795-1806)  Cape  Colony 
became  a  British  possession.  In  1787  Sierra  Leone  was 
settled  under  the  auspices  of  a  British  company  by  Afri- 
cans who  had  gained  their  freedom  in  America  by  the 
chances  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  constituted  the 
first  attempt  to  introduce  civilization  and  Christianity  to 
a  region  which  hitherto  had  been  visited  only  by  slave- 
stealers  in  the  pursuit  of  their  nefarious  occupation. 

To  Mungo  Park  (1795-1806)  belongs  the  honor  of 
being  the  pioneer  in  modern  African  exploration.  He 
made  two  journeys  towards  the  interior,  entering  from  the 
west  through  Senegambia,and  crossing  to  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Niger,  penetrated  as  far  as  Timbuktu  and  was  killed 
by  the  natives.  Hence,  practically,  all  that  we  know  of 
this  continent  has  been  given  to  the  world  within  a  hun- 
dred years,  or  since  Carey  founded  the  first  missionary 
society  and  led  the  way  to  the  world's  evangelization. 


196  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

And  further,  the  great  bulk  of  the  explorations  belong  to 
the  last  half  of  the  century.  It  is  almost  wholly  during 
the  memory  of  multitudes  yet  living  that,  under  the 
love  of  adventure,  or  love  of  gain,  in  the  interests  of  sci- 
ence, philanthopy,  or  religion,  by  the  score  and  hundred, 
and  from  all  points  of  the  compass,  the  daring  and  venture- 
some have  been  pouring  in.  It  was  as  late  as  1830  that  the 
Landers  took  up  the  task  which  Park  had  left  unfinished, 
and  traced  the  Niger  to  its  mouth.  In  1857,  and  again  in 
1865,  Du  Chaillu  pushed  hither  and  thither  through  the 
unknown  in  the  same  region.  From  the  south  the  Dutch 
Boers  migrated  steadily  further  and  further  back  from  the 
coast.  In  1817  Moffat  began  to  combine  exploration 
with  proclamation  of  the  glad  tidings,  and  entered  a  field 
far  to  the  north  of  the  Orange  River.  Next  followed  Liv» 
ingstone  (1840-73),  the  greatest  name  of  all  in  this  con. 
nection,  and  one  standing  for  a  marvelous  career  of  self- 
denial  and  devotion,  of  endurance  and  achievement,  con- 
secrated completely  to  the  tremendous  task  of  revealing 
to  the  civilized  world  the  horrid  secrets  of  this  vast  terra 
incognita,  and  based  upon  his  famous  dictum  that  "  the 
end  of  geographical  discovery  is  the  beginning  of  mis- 
sionary enterprise."  In  1849  he  crossed  the  Kalahari 
Desert  and  discovered  Lake  Ngami.  In  1853-7  he  ad- 
vanced northward  to  the  Zambezi,  turned  westward  to 
the  Atlantic,  and  then  facing  about,  made  his  way  east- 
ward to  the  Indian  Ocean,  descending  the  Zambezi  to  its 
mouth,  and  among  the  rest  discovering  the  famous  Vic- 
toria Falls.  In  1859  he  ascended  the  Shire"  to  its  source 
in  Lake  Nyassa,  returning  later  to  explore  the  entire  cir- 
cumference of  the  latter.  In  1866-73  he  penetrated  still 
further,  to  Lake  Tanganyika  and  the  region  lying  beyond 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.          197 

its  western  shores,  in  eager  search  of  the  head  streams  of 
the  Kongo.  Stanley  found  him  at  Ujiji,  in  1871 ;  spent 
five  months  in  his  company  drinking  in  his  noble  spirit, 
later  sent  him  supplies,  and  two  years  afterwards  the  prince 
of  Africa's  benefactors  was  found  dead  upon  his  knees 
near  Lake  Bangweolo. 

But  years  before  this,  Krapf  and  Rebmann,  German 
missionaries  in  the  employ  of  the  English  Church  Soci- 
ety, had  entered  East  Africa  from  Mombasa  and  Zanzibar, 
were  the  first  of  Europeans  to  set  eyes  upon  Kilimanjaro 
and  Kenia,and  heard  reports  of  the  existence  of  a  vast  body 
of  water  further  towards  the  interior,  known  then  as  Unia- 
mesi.  In  1847  Burton  and  Speke  penetrated  to  Tangan- 
yika, and  pushed  thence  to  Victoria  Nyanza,  while  in  1860 
Speke  and  Grant  proved  this  greatest  of  African  lakes  to  be 
the  source  of  the  Nile.  In  1 8 75  Cameron  crossed  from  Zan- 
zibar to  Benguella,  and  the  year  following  Stanley  entered 
upon  his  journey  of  a  thousand  days  lacking  one,  which 
brought  him  at  length  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kongo.  On 
account  of  this  and  other  distinguished  achievements,  his 
name  must  stand  hard  after  Livingstone's  among  those 
whose  most  arduous  labors  have  made  possible  the  com- 
ing of  the  Kingdom  in  these  boundless  realms  of  dark- 
ness. And  finally,  meantime,  from  the  north,  yet  others 
were  pressing  inward  towards  the  centre.  In  1849,  the 
same  year  in  which  Lake  Ngami  was  discovered,  Rich- 
ardson and  Earth  set  forth  across  the  Sahara  for  Lake 
Chad,  but  the  former  died  when  in  the  midst  of  his  un- 
dertaking, and  the  latter  continued  his  journeys  through 
the  Sudan  for  seven  years.  In  1864-7  Rolhfs  was  in 
the  same  region,  entering  from  Tripoli,  and  making  his 
exit  to  the  southwest,  reaching  the  ocean  at  the  Bight  of 


198  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

Benin.  Only  a  few  names  from  a  long  list  have  been 
given,  and  in  order  that,  in  some  measure  at  least,  might 
be  presented  the  remarkable  phenomenon  of  African  ex- 
ploration upon  which  this  generation  has  been  permitted 
to  gaze.  The  changes  wrought,  the  astounding  additions 
made  to  human  knowledge  are  not  unworthy  to  be  com- 
pared with  those  resulting  from  the  ventures  of  Columbus 
and  Magellan.  The  task  accomplished  was  vastly  greater. 
What  appalling  difficulties  and  perils  have  been  faced  and 
overcome,  what  sufferings  have  been  endured,  and  how 
many  have  laid  down  their  lives.  Only  about  forty  years 
ago  Krapf  put  on  paper  this  suggestion,  which,  no  doubt, 
to  many  of  his  contemporaries  wore  the  look  of  a  wild 
dream,  but  which  to  us  has  been  changed  into  real  mat- 
ter of  fact ;  and  yet,  in  many  respects,  what  an  ancient 
look  it  wears.  In  1850,  giving  a  view  of  the  great  results 
to  which  his  discoveries  might  lead,  he  wrote  :  "  When 
once  the  time  has  fully  come  that  the  Hamitic  race  shall 
be  made  acquainted  with  the  gospel,  and  be  received  into 
the  family  of  God's  children  upon  earth,  the  high  roads 
of  Africa  will  take  every  observer  by  surprise.  It  will 
then  be  manifested  that  the  facilities  of  communication 
on  the  African  continent  are  not  inferior  to  those  of 
Europe,  Asia  and  America.  God's  providence  has  cer- 
tainly paved  the  way  for  the  speedy  accomplishment  of 
his  sublime  designs.  The  Niger  will  carry  the  messen- 
gers of  peace  to  the  various  states  of  Nigritia,  while  the 
Tshadda,  together  with  the  Congo,  will  convey  them  to 
the  western  center  of  Africa,  towards  the  northern  tribes 
of  Uniamesi.  The  different  branches  of  the  Nile  will  lead 
the  missionaries  towards  the  same  center  from  the  north 
and  northeast,  while  the  Jub  and  Dana  will  bring  them 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.          199 

in  frcra  East  Africa,  and  the  Kilimani  [Zambesi]  will 
usher  them  in  from  the  south.  The  sources  of  these  great 
rivers  are  not  so  distant  from  each  other  as  our  present 
geographical  knowledge  would  lead  us  to  believe.  Shall 
we  propose,  therefore,  and  undertake  the  formation  of  a 
mission  chain,  linking  together  the  eastern  and  western 
coasts  of  Africa  ?  or  shall  we  follow  up  the  water  courses 
of  the  continent,  by  establishing  missions  at  the  sources 
and  estuaries  of  those  great  rivers  ?  The  Tshadda,  the 
Kongo,  the  Nile  and  the  Kilimani  rivers  take  their  rise 
either  from  the  great  lake  in  Uniamesi,  or  very  near  it. 
And  if  the  communication  with  Central  Africa  shall  be 
found  so  simple  and  so  easy,  why  should  we  question  the 
speedy  spread  of  Christianity  and  Christian  civilization 
in  Africa  ?  "  This  same  intrepid  evangelist-explorer  pro- 
ceeded to  propose  to  the  Gabun  mission  the  formation  of 
a  continental  mission-line  to  connect  with  his  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Zanzibar.  Commenting  upon  this  prop- 
osition some  four  years  later,  a  missionary  authority  sug- 
gests :  "  The  place  of  meeting  would  be  upon  some  one 
of  the  central  mountains  which  divide  the  great  basins  of 
the  Nile,  the  Zaire  and  the  small  rivers  running  into  the 
Indian  Ocean.  They  may  be  from  eight  hundred  to  a 
thousand  miles  from  either  coast,  and  Krapf  and  Reb- 
mann  have  explored  some  three  or  four  hundred  miles  of 
the  eastern  portion.  Providence  is  opening  wide  the 
door." 

Among  recent  events  of  exceeding  great  importance  in 
relation  to  the  redemption  of  Africa  must  be  named  the 
astounding  parceling  out,  or  partition,  of  the  bulk  of  the 
continent  among  the  various  powers  of  Europe,  a  whole- 
sale appropriation  of  territory  entirely  without  an  equal 


•OO  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

in  history.  The  whole  procedure  is  high-handed  in  the 
extreme,  and  affords  ample  justification  for  the  severe 
though  witty  affirmation  of  Dr.  Cust  that,  whereas,  "  in 
former  years  Europeans  used  to  steal  Africans  from  Africa, 
now  they  are  trying  to  steal  Africa  from  the  Africans." 
And  yet,  at  many  points,  it  cannot  but  result  in  benefits 
unspeakable  to  the  natives.  The  beginning  of  the  scheme 
may  be  said  to  date  from  the  setting  up  of  the  Kongo 
Free  State  by  the  imposing  Berlin  Conference  in  1884, 
when  fourteen  governments,  also  four  hundred  and  fifty 
African  "  kings"  not  refusing  assent  to  the  same,  fixed 
certain  boundaries,  rules  and  regulations,  and  placed 
King  Leopold  II.  of  Belgium  in  the  seat  of  supreme 
power.  At  divers  conventions  held  since,  various 
"  claims  "  to  territory  have  been  considered,  allowed,  or 
rejected,  with  this  as  the  general  outcome  at  the  present 
stage  of  the  business.  The  South  African  Republic  and 
the  Orange  Free  State  had  been  in  being  for  some  years. 

AREA.          POPULATION. 

Great  Britain,  2,700,000  41,775,000 

France,  4,000,000  32,000,000 

Kongo  Free  State,  900,000  17,000,000 

Germany,  900,000  9,000,000 

Portugal,  750,000  7,500,000 

Italy,  330,000  1,500,000 

Spain,  250,000  150,000 

Total,  Africa,  12,000,000  165,000,000 

Left  in  native  hands,  2,500,000  52,000,000 

One  other  class  of  invaluable  aids  to  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  Africa  remains  to  be  mentioned.  After  the  ex- 
plorers had  completed  their  indispensable  work,  by  ban- 
ishing the  mystery  and  uncovering  the  contents  hidden 
from  the  beginning  of  time,  and  after  the  famous  par- 
tition had  made  certain  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade, 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  201 

and  the  worst  forms  of  savagery,  as  well  as  civil  and 
social  order  and  security  to  life  and  property,  a  further 
step  forward  became  a  necessity.  As  we  have  seen,  one 
of  the  most  serious  obstacles  to  the  entrance  of  civiliza- 
tion and  Christianity  had  been  found  in  the  unusual 
paucity  of  good  harbors  upon  the  fifteen  thousand  miles 
of  coast,  and  the  even  more  fatal  lack  of  rivers  naviga- 
ble from  the  sea  into  the  remote  interior.  These  phys- 
ical barriers  alone  were  next  to  prohibitory.  The  task 
of  conquering  for  the  kingdom  was  well-nigh  too  great 
to  be  undertaken.  By  some  effectual  method  the  way 
of  the  Lord  must  be  prepared,  and  in  the  desert  a  high- 
way for  our  God  be  made  straight,  and  that  so  the  feet 
of  the  messengers  of  glad  tidings  might  enter,  and  trav- 
erse these  boundless  realms  of  darkness.  And  by  a 
strange  providence,  in  the  very  nick  of  time,  what  was 
required  had  been  prepared  by  the  science  and  mechan- 
ical skill  of  the  nineteenth  century.  All  unconsciously 
to  themselves,  Watt,  and  Stevenson,  and  Morse,  were 
missionaries.  As  a  result  of  what  the  Spirit  of  God 
wrought  out  through  their  intellects,  already  upon  the 
great  African  lakes,  Nyassa,  Tanganyika,  and  Nyanza, 
several  steam  vessels  are  found,  and  continually  moving 
from  shore  to  shore  and  from  island  to  island,  so  that 
these  inland  seas  are  priceless  helps  to  travel,  and  trans- 
portation of  goods.  Upon  the  Kongo,  with  its  numer- 
ous tributaries  affording  abundance  of  navigable  water  ex- 
tending to  the  very  heart  of  the  continent,  the  Free 
State  maintains  nineteen  steamers,  seven  below  the 
rapids  and  twelve  above,  while  others  are  made  use  of 
by  various  missions.  The  Niger  too,  and  the  Zambesi, 
and  the  Shire,  are  traversed,  in  the  same  fashion,  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  Gospel.  And  ere  long  the  terrible 


202  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

endurance,  and  strain,  and  peril  of  months,  will  be  ex- 
changed for  a  journey  unattended  with  any  special  diffi- 
culty, while  with  exposure  avoided,  and  the  comforts  of 
civilized  life  secured,  the  assaults  of  the  deadly  fever 
may  much  better  be  resisted.  But  even  more.  The  lo- 
comotive is  the  matchless  vanquisher  of  time,  and  space, 
and  physical  barriers,  and  long  since  began  to  crowd  its 
way  irresistibly  from  various  points  upon  the  seaboard 
towards  the  centre.  The  French  are  steadily  extending 
the  rails  through  Algeria,  in  the  direction  of  Lake 
Chad  and  their  possessions  upon  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 
The  long  stretch  of  rapids  separating  the  lower  from  the 
upper  Kongo  will  soon  be  conquered  by  the  iron  horse. 
Another  railroad  is  slowly  advancing  from  Benguela 
towards  Bihe,  and  the  head  waters  of  the  Zambesi,  while 
South  Africa  rejoices  in  the  possession  of  several  thou- 
sand miles  of  track.  Still  another  road  will  presently  be 
completed  between  Beira  upon  the  Indian  Ocean  and 
the  gold  fields  of  Mashonaland,  while  surveys  have  been 
made  for  one  which  shall  connect  Uganda  with  the  east 
coast.  And  finally,  largely  through  the  superb  states- 
manship and  enterprise  of  Sir  Cecil  Rhodes,  a  trans-con- 
tinental telegraph  line  is  under  construction,  to  extend 
from  Table  Mountain  past  the  great  lakes  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Nile.  And  these  examples  are  but  specimens; 
they  represent  only  the  insignificant  beginning  of  mar- 
velous good  things  to  come  for  the  redemption  of  Africa. 
The  stupendous  task  of  redeeming  Africa  by  the  proc- 
lamation of  the  Gospel  began  under  most  hopeful  au- 
spices as  far  back  as  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  certain 
from  Egypt  and  the  parts  of  Libya  about  Cyrene  were 
present  in  Jerusalem  to  share  in  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Another  African,  the  eunuch  of  Ethiopia  (per- 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  203 

haps  Nubia  and  perhaps  Abyssinia),  was  introduced  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  not  long  after  by  Philip.  And, 
a  little  later  still,  we  hear  of  Apollos  of  Alexandria,  so 
fervid  and  eloquent.  Though  it  is  not  known  exactly  in 
what  way,  or  by  whom,  at  an  early  period  the  entire 
southern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  was  dotted  with 
Christian  churches,  while  Alexandria  and  Carthage  be- 
came leading  centers  for  the  new  faith,  with  such  famous 
names  as  Clement,  and  Origen,  Cyril,  Athanasius,  Au- 
gustine and  many  more,  as  theologians  and  preachers. 
Abyssinia  was  Christianized,  after  a  fashion,  about  the 
middle  of  the  fourth  century,  and  ever  since  the  church 
has  maintained  its  existence  in  that  country,  that  is,  it 
has  had  a  name  to  live.  But  the  faith  and  practice  of 
the  African  saints  were  never  very  pure,  and  at  their 
best  contained  large  admixtures  of  paganism.  In  par- 
ticular, the  Egyptian  church  went  far  astray  in  the  paths 
of  false  doctrine.  As  a  result,  as  everywhere  else  in 
the  Orient,  in  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  later 
after  the  campaigns  of  Islam  for  world-wide  dominion, 
the  remarkable  conquests  of  the  truth  were  well-nigh  ut- 
terly lost.  The  Copts  however  of  the  Nile  valley, 
though  suffering  terrible  persecutions,  and  losing  multi- 
tudes by  apostasy  to  Mohammedanism,  maintained  their 
organization,  and  still  occupy  their  ancient  seats.  For 
almost  twelve  hundred  years  no  Christian  voice  was 
lifted  to  call  this  continent  to  repentance. 

As  to  modern  missionary  work  in  Africa,  the  story  is 
one  full  of  deepest  interest,  with  chapters  overflowing 
with  passages  most  pathetic  and  even  tragic.  It  is  a 
long  and  sad,  but  thrilling  narrative  of  heroic  undertak- 
ing, attended  with  a  world  of  suffering,  sickness,  death, 
and  apparent  failure.  The  steps  and  stages  of  the  di- 


204  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

vine  task  were  in  outline  something  as  follows.  It  will 
be  convenient  to  make  five  divisions  of  the  theme,  and 
to  speak  of  evangelizing  efforts  begun  and  carried  for- 
ward in  the  following  order :  In  the  southern  portions  of 
the  continent,  upon  the  west  coast,  in  the  Kongo  valley, 
in  the  region  lying  about  the  great  lakes,  and  lastly  on 
the  northern  border. 

SOUTH  AFRICA. 

This  portion  of  Africa  was  naturally  entered  first  by 
the  heralds  of  the  cross,  because  here  first  European  col- 
onies had  been  established.  And  for  various  reasons 
missions  have  been  most  numerous  and  successful  to  the 
south  of  the  line  adjoining  Walfish  Bay  with  Delagoa 
Bay.  The  latitude  is  that  of  the  south  temperate  zone, 
and  hence  the  climate  is  healthy  and  invigorating.  Be- 
sides, for  nearly  two  centuries  and  a  half,  civilized  gov- 
ernment and  society  have  been  steadily  extending  from 
the  coast  far  into  the  interior.  The  demoralization  of 
the  slave  trade  has  happily  been  absent,  though  the 
Dutch  scrupled  not  to  reduce  the  Hottentots  to  servi- 
tude. Many  thousands  of  European  inhabitants  are 
now  scattered  over  a  wide  area,  with  liberal  additions 
of  Hindus,  Chinese  and  Malays,  attracted  by  the  rich 
mines  and  the  fine  agricultural  resources.  To  meet  the 
civil  needs  of  this  population  two  British  colonial  gov- 
ernments have  been  set  up,  Cape  Colony  and  Natal ;  two 
for  years  under  native  Dutch  rule,  the  Orange  River  Col- 
ony and  the  Transvaal  Colony ;  and  there  is  the  roomy 
domain  of  the  British  South  Africa  Company.  Or,  if  we 
include  the  east  coast  as  far  north  as  the  lower  Zambesi, 
and  the  west  coast  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kongo,  we 
must  add  the  Portuguese  provinces  of  Lorenzo-Marques 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  205 

and  Angola,  and  German  Southwest  Africa.  Concern- 
ing this  entire  region  Dr.  Cust  is  of  the  opinion  that 
there  is  no  other  mission  field  like  it,  with  so  little  to 
fear  from  climate  or  people,  and  he  declares  that  none 
except  the  first  man  to  enter  it  (the  Moravian,  Schmidt) 
can  lay  any  claim  to  heroism,  and  his  antagonists  were 
not  pagan  Bantus  or  Hottentots,  but  Dutch  Christians. 
The  Moravians  were  the  pioneers  in  bringing  the 
blessed  good  news,  Africa  ranking  among  the  most  at- 
tractive of  areas  for  these  queer  souls,  whose  character- 
istic principle  it  has  been  from  the  first  to  prefer  toil  in 
the  midst  of  environments  most  forbidding,  discourag- 
ing, and  desolate.  And  their  earliest  mission  had  been 
located  among  the  degraded  slaves  of  the  West  Indies. 
It  was  nearly  a  century  after  Cape  Colony  was  founded, 
and  some  twenty-five  years  before  Carey  was  born,  that 
George  Schmidt  was  dispatched  from  Herrnhut  to  make 
Christ  known  to  the  benighted.  For  years  already  he 
had  been  a  great  sufferer  for  the  Gospel's  sake,  having 
lain  for  six  years  in  a  Bohemian  prison,  and  a  portion  of 
the  time  in  chains  so  heavy  that  he  was  crippled  for  life. 
Arriving  at  Cape  Town  in  1737,  he  made  his  errand 
known,  but  was  met  with  amazement  and  incredulity, 
and  afterwards  with  derision  and  scorn.  That  is,  not  at 
all  by  the  poor  heathen,  but  by  the  Dutch,  people  and 
preachers  together.  And  because,  forsooth,  he  had  de- 
termined to  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  Hottentots,  whom 
the  stanch  Calvinists  held  in  measureless  contempt,  and 
had  enslaved.  It  was  a  generation  or  two  later,  and  by 
another  missionary,  that  this  notice  was  seen  over  a 
church  door,  "  Dogs  and  Hottentots  not  admitted." 
Presently  he  made  his  way  to  Bavian's  Kloof,  about  sixty 
miles  to  the  east.  Being  advanced  in  years,  and  unable 


206  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

to  learn  their  language,  Schmidt  essayed  to  impart  in- 
struction in  the  Dutch  tongue.  Such  love  and  devotion 
were  not  lost  on  the  natives,  and  in  due  season  a  few 
were  baptized  who  seemed  evidently  to  have  turned  from 
their  sins  to  God,  but  with  the  greatest  offence  to  the 
"  Reformed  "  in  those  parts.  The  scandal  was  two-fold. 
Brutish  creatures,  whom  they  had  reduced  to  bondage, 
had  been  received  into  the  church,  and  by  one  who  be- 
ing a  Moravian  heretic  had  no  authority  to  administer 
the  ordinances.  After  seven  years  of  most  faithful  and 
self-denying  toil,  and  when  a  company  of  nearly  fifty 
converts  had  been  gathered,  the  civil  authorities  gave 
command  to  cease  from  such  unlawful  business.  Return- 
ing to  Holland  to  plead  in  behalf  of  his  beloved  Hotten- 
tots, permission  was  refused  to  enter  the  Colony  again. 
The  feeble  flock  waited  long  and  anxiously  for  his  re- 
turn, and  little  by  little  were  scattered  for  lack  of  a  shep- 
herd. It  was  fifty  years  later  before  the  mission  was  re- 
newed, and  when  in  1792,  the  memorable  date  of 
Carey's  beginning,  three  Moravians  revisited  Bavian's 
Kloof,  only  one  person  was  found,  an  aged  woman,  who 
remembered  Schmidt.  From  this  time  to  the  present 
the  work  has  been  maintained,  and  one  new  station  after 
another  has  been  occupied.  In  particular  Gnadenthal 
among  the  Kaffirs  is  a  noted  spot.  And  among  the 
many  other  Christlike  deeds  in  that  region  must  be 
named  the  opening  of  an  asylum  for  lepers  at  Hemel  en 
Aarde.  Such  measures  of  success  have  been  vouchsafed 
that  the  work  is  divided  into  the  Western  and  Eastern 
Province,  and  includes  38  stations  and  out-stations,  with 
a  force  of  42  men  and  the  same  number  of  women,  to- 
gether with  a  large  company  of  native  assistants.  The 
churches  contain  5,341  members,  while  about  14,000  are 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  207 

reckoned  as  adherents.     In  the  schools  are  found  3,813 
pupils. 

The  next  missionary  enterprise  in  behalf  of  Africa 
was  begun  in  1 799  by  the  London  Society,  and  with  the 
distinguished  Dr.  Vanderkemp  as  leader.  A  graduate 
of  the  University  of  Leyden,  for  sixteen  years  he  was  an 
officer  in  the  army  of  the  Netherlands,  and  withal  in 
those  days  an  out  and  out  infidel.  Later  a  course  of 
study  was  pursued  in  Edinburgh,  followed  by  years  of 
practice  as  a  physician.  Losing  his  wife  and  only  child 
by  a  shocking  accident,  of  a  sudden,  and  with  all  the 
fervor  and  whole-souled  determination  of  Paul,  Jesus  was 
accepted  as  Lord,  though  past  fifty  he  offered  himself  as 
bearer  of  glad  tidings  to  the  lowest  of  the  low  that  wear 
the  human  form,  and  by  choice  sailed  for  the  Cape  in  a 
convict  ship  bound  for  New  South  Wales  with  some  hun- 
dreds of  desperate  characters  on  board.  The  scene  of 
his  toil  was  mainly  at  Graaf  Reinet  and  in  the  vicinity 
of  Algoa  Bay.  It  was  a  time  of  general  disturbance, 
since  Dutch  dominion  was  about  to  end,  and  British 
sway  was  to  follow.  Much  trouble  was  suffered  from  the 
opposition  of  the  civil  rulers,  and  more  from  the  preju- 
dice and  hatred  of  the  Boers.  But  he  gave  himself  with- 
out stint,  and  with  tireless  energy,  to  the  betterment  of 
the  Hottentots,  and  with  several  associates  to  co-operate, 
was  able  to  win  to  a  remarkable  degree  their  confidence 
and  affection,  as  well  as  to  gather  some  hundreds  of  con- 
verts, whom  he  trained  not  only  to  piety  and  godliness, 
but  also  in  the  useful  arts  of  industry.  After  his  death 
in  1811  the  work  was  carried  on  for  a  season,  but  pres- 
ently on  account  of  various  changes  of  population,  etc., 
was  relinquished.  In  1818  the  same  society  sent  out 
Robert  Moffat,  one  of  the  chief  of  civilizers  and  Chris- 


208  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

tianizers  in  Africa,  to  begin  a  term  of  more  than  fifty 
years  of  service,  and  with  Kuruman  in  Bechuanaland  as 
the  theatre  for  his  activity,  as  well  as  with  Africaner, 
once  a  murderer,  robber  and  outlaw,  on  whose  head  a 
price  was  set,  as  the  most  famous  trophy  of  divine  grace. 
In  1840  followed  Livingstone  to  the  same  mission,  to  the 
north  of  the  Orange  River,  and  some  700  miles  from 
Cape  Town,  though  ere  long  pressing  forward  further 
into  the  interior,  and  at  length  entering  on  his  magnifi- 
cent career  as  explorer.  Not  especially  skilled  or  suc- 
cessful as  an  evangelizer  in  a  direct  and  personal  way, 
he  yet  wrought  wonders  in  opening  the  path  for  others. 
His  was  the  rare  genius  of  the  statesman-missionary. 
His  view  was  prophetic.  His  life-scheme  embraced 
nothing  less  than  the  entire  continent.  He  would  un- 
cover to  the  gaze  of  the  world  the  appalling  facts  in  the 
case,  and  so  stir  men's  convictions  as  to  raise  an  irresis- 
tible crusade,  against  slavery  first,  but  also  against  the 
universal  paganism  and  barbarism.  And  all  this  he 
achieved.  Other  missions  have  been  since  founded  in 
Cape  Colony,  in  Kaffirland,  and  Matabeleland,  so  that 
there  are  now  four  in  all,  manned  with  16  missionaries 
and  their  wives,  with  scores  of  trained  natives  to  assist, 
while  the  pupils  in  the  schools  number  about  2,000,  the 
church  members  some  3,000  and  the  native  Christians 
8,000. 

The  English  Wesleyans  were  the  next  to  enter  South 
Africa,  despatching  their  first  representative  in  1814,  and 
appointing  Barnabas  Shaw  the  year  following.  The  Wes- 
leyan  doctrine  was  in  bad  repute  at  the  Cape,  and  he 
was  instructed  by  those  in  high  civil  station  that  his 
presence  was  not  needed,  or  desired,  thereabouts. 
Thereupon  he  set  forth  northward  to  find  room  for  his 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  209 

proclamation  beyond  the  pale  of  civilization.  And  it 
was  when  on  this  first  journey,  and  after  traveling  three 
hundred  miles,  that  he  met  a  Hottentot  chief  who  had 
already  advanced  two  hundred  miles  in  search  of  white 
men  to  teach  his  people.  Then  together  the  man  of  God 
and  the  heathen  seeker  after  truth  entered  Namaqualand 
where  the  Gospel  call  was  long  sounded  out.  In  addi- 
tion to  his  limitless  courage  and  fervor,  Mr.  Shaw  was 
possessed  of  unwonted  skill  to  instruct  the  poor  creatures 
about  him  to  do  many  useful  things.  In  particular,  a 
plow  which  he  fashioned  with  his  own  hands  was  the 
cause  of  the  greatest  wonder,  and  on  one  occasion  after 
watching  it  in  operation,  an  aged  polygamist  exclaimed 
with  fine  enthusiasm,  "Why,  it  will  do  in  a  day  the 
work  of  ten  wives  !  "  The  Wesleyan  work  in  the  south- 
ern portion  of  the  continent  is  found  in  the  Transvaal 
and  Swaziland,  and  contains  23  missionaries  and  assist- 
ants and  92  native  ministers,  222  native  local  preachers, 
132  chapels  and  292  other  preaching  places,  8,800  church 
members  and  47,000  attendants  upon  public  worship. 

The  Paris  Society  (Sociltl  des  Missions  Evangilique) 
entered  South  Africa  in  1829.  Receiving  no  welcome 
from  the  Boers  of  Cape  Colony,  the  missionaries,  like  so 
many  others,  crossed  the  Orange  River  to  find  a  field 
containing  no  foes  to  resist  except  from  among  the 
heathen,  and  at  first  fixed  themselves  at  no  great  distance 
from  Kuruman  and  Moffat.  But  many  vicissitudes  were 
in  store,  one  station  after  another  was  abandoned  until 
finally  they  found  rest  and  prosperity  in  Basutoland,  a 
small  country  hemmed  in  by  Cape  Colony,  Transvaal 
and  Natal.  A  chief  of  this  tribe,  after  making  the  pur- 
chase of  a  gun,  was  told  by  the  merchant  that  there  was 
something  better  to  buy,  the  Gospel  to  wit,  which  brings 


210  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

not  death  but  life,  and  was  informed  where  this  doctrine 
could  be  found.  As  a  result,  he  sent  a  message  to  the 
French  missionaries,  who  received  it  as  from  God.  Prog- 
ress was  slow  for  a  long  period,  but  patient  continuance 
in  well  doing  finally  brought  reward  in  rich  ingathering. 
The  last  ten  years  have  seen  the  number  of  native  Chris- 
tians doubled,  and  the  number  of  pupils  quadrupled,  so 
that  now  of  the  former  there  are  20,969,  and  of  the 
latter  15,460.  The  work  is  carried  on  by  27  European 
toilers,  8  native  pastors  and  96  native  evangelists. 

Three  German  societies  share  in  the  burden  of  pro- 
claiming Christ  in  this  quarter  of  the  globe,  the  Rhenish 
beginning  work  in  1830,  the  Berlin  following  four  years 
later,  and  the  Hermannsburg  in  1858,  from  the  call  of 
a  Bechuana  chief  and  a  letter  from  the  Dutch  authori- 
ties. The  general  German  method  is  to  secure  large 
tracts  of  land,  gather  colonies  from  home,  or  from  among 
the  natives,  and  to  carry  on  a  large  number  of  useful  occu- 
pations, and  thus,  so  far  as  possible,  to  make  the  mission 
self-supporting.  How  wisely  and  zealously  toil  has  been 
bestowed  appears  in  the  fact  that  the  combined  force  of 
172  missionaries  have  gathered  upwards  of  10,000 
pupils  into  the  schools,  30,207  into  the  churches,  and 
almost  60,000  have  put  themselves  under  Christian  in- 
struction. The  Berlin  Society  has  organized  six  synods 
whose  names  indicate'  how  wide-spread  is  the  work. 
Transvaal  North  and  South,  Natal,  Kaffraria,  Orange 
Orange  River  Colony,  and  Cape  Colony.  In  addition 
to  these,  two  Swedish  societies,  and  one  Norwegian,  are 
represented  in  South  Africa. 

In  1834  the  American  Board  laid  the  foundations  for  a 
mission  among  the  Zulus,  which  has  passed  through  its 
full  share  of  vicissitudes,  from  war  and  various  outbursts 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  211 

of  superstition  and  savagery,  so  that  more  than  once  it 
appeared  to  be  on  the  verge  of  destruction,  but  the  sup- 
ply of  men  and  women  of  saintly  and  heroic  mould 
never  failing,  such  conquests  have  been  made  that  the 
42  American  laborers  occupy  33  stations  and  out-sta- 
tions, with  a  total  of  408  natives  to  assist,  the  schools  have 
2,974  pupils,  and  in  the  24  churches  are  3,596  communi- 
cants, while  the  adherents  number  15,200.  Some  year,s 
since  the  attempt  was  made  to  establish  an  East  African 
mission  far  northward  towards  the  Zambesi,  but  thus  far 
this  work  has  not  advanced  beyond  the  tentative  and  ex- 
perimental stage.  But — to  go  quite  beyond  the  limits 
of  South  Africa  proper — in  1884  the  West  African  Mis- 
sion was  established  upon  the  highlands  some  200  miles 
back  from  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  with  Bine  and  Bail- 
undu  as  central  stations.  The  outlook  is  encouraging. 

Two  Scotch  missions  remain  to  be  mentioned.  And 
first,  the  one  in  charge  of  the  Free  Church,  which  dates 
from  1821,  and  was  organized  by  the  Glasgow  Society, 
but  in  1843  was  transferred  when  it  had  already  reached 
a  flourishing  condition.  The  Kaffirs  are  the  special  ob- 
jects of  prayer  and  labor,  and  Lovedale  constitutes  the 
most  characteristic  and  famous  feature.  This  institu- 
tion, which  so  well  combines  the  evangelizing  and  edu- 
cational elements,  is  located  some  seven  hundred  miles 
to  the  northeast  of  Cape  Town,  was  opened  in  1841,  is 
for  the  benefit  of  both  sexes,  and  the  courses  include 
general  education,  industrial  training,  and  preparatory 
study  for  teaching  and  the  ministry.  A  large  farm  is 
owned  and  cultivated,  twenty-two  buildings  are  in  use 
for  dormitories,  dwellings,  etc.,  whose  total  cost  was 
^30,000,  and  the  annual  expenditure  reaches  ^6,000, 
of  which  one-third  is  met  from  fees,  one-third  from 


212  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

government  grants,  and  the  rest  from  donations.  About 
800  pupils  are  in  attendance,  of  whom  not  a  few  come 
from  long  distances.  Several  years  ago  another  school, 
fashioned  after  Lovedale,  was  opened  at  Blythswood  some 
sixty  miles  to  the  northeast.  In  1847  the  United  Pres- 
byterians, having  come  into  possession  of  a  flourishing 
mission  organized  by  the  Glasgow  Society,  entered  the 
same  general  region,  and  were  faithful  in  caring  for  their 
charge.  When,  in  1900,  the  Free  Church  coalesced  with 
the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  the  work  of  both  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  resulting  United  Free  Church. 
The  missionaries  of  both  sexes  number  94,  of  whom  31 
are  ordained,  and  with  them  are  associated  579  native 
assistants.  Into  the  churches  have  been  gathered  14,402 
communicants,  while  in  the  773  schools  13,522  scholars 
are  found. 

A  complete  list  of  evangelizing  agencies  in  operation 
for  the  redemption  of  South  Africa  would  include  sev- 
eral additional  societies  which  have  entered  the  field 
in  recent  years,  or  whose  methods  of  work  are  so  pecul- 
iar as  not  to  be  easy  to  compare  with  the  rest.  As  an 
example  of  the  latter  class,  the  Propagation  Society  (S. 
P.  G.)  has  a  large  force  of  workers,  but  is  engaged 
mainly  in  behalf  of  European  colonists.  Some  idea 
may  be  gathered  of  what  the  various  churches  of  Chris- 
tendom are  doing  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  the 
portion  of  the  Dark  Continent  under  view  by  scanning 
these  brief  summaries  of  facts  already  given  in  frag- 
mentary form.  The  principal  societies  at  work  number 
15,  and  they  employ  595  missionaries,  and  3,950  native 
helpers.  In  their  schools  are  found  76,250  pupils,  and  in 
their  churches  165,000  members.  The  number  of  native 
Christians  is  305,200.  In  addition,  should  be  included 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  213 

the  Wesleyan  South  African  Conference,  now  independ- 
ent of  the  society  through  which  it  came  into  being, 
with  upwards  of  33,000  native  members.  After  a  cen- 
tury of  British  rule  and  missionary  toil,  Cape  Colony  is 
clearly  to  be  regarded  as  both  civilized,  and  Christian. 
For  according  to  the  recent  census,  in  a  population  of 
2,500,000,  of  whom  720,000  are  white,  are  to  be  found 
356,777  Dutch  Reformed;  1 20, 240  Wesleyans ;  145,126 
Church  of  England;  79,829  Independents;  43,786 
Presbyterians;  16,012  Moravians;  14,159  Rhenish 
Missions ;  and  14,012  Roman  Catholics.  The  total  num- 
ber of  persons,  therefore,  with  church  affiliations  of 
some  sort, in  this  fragment  of  the  British  Empire,  is 
527,689. 

WEST  AFRICA. 

This  is  a  term  commonly  employed  to  designate  some 
four  thousand  miles  of  the  Atlantic  Coast,  lying  be- 
tween Senegambia  on  the  North,  and  Angola  on  the 
South,  and  including  various  subdivisions  like  Sierra 
Leone  Coast,  Ivory  Coast,  Gold  Coast,  Slave  Coast, 
etc.  Except  upon  the  Niger,  the  width  of  the  territory 
under  view  is  nowhere  more  than  from  two  hundred  to 
three  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  This  phrase  is  a 
synonym  for  sin,  sorrow  and  tragedy.  For  long  cen- 
turies this  region  was  the  woful  scene  of  the  slave  trade, 
which  is  perhaps  the  most  amazing  and  shocking  ex- 
ample in  history  of  man's  inhumanity  to  man.  It  is 
estimated  that  within  a  period  of  four  hundred  years  not 
less  than  40,000,000  of  blacks,  with  the  accompaniment 
of  wholesale  fire  and  slaughter,  were  here  seized  to  be 
transported  over  sea  and  sold  into  bondage,  though 
probably  the  greater  number  perished  during  the  hor- 


214  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

rors  of  the  "  middle  passage."  And,  as  if  this  were  not 
calamity  and  catastrophe  sufficient,  the  climate  is  deadly 
to  those  of  foreign  birth  almost  beyond  that  of  any  other 
portion  of  the  earth's  surface.  So  superabundant  is  the 
moisture,  and  so  intense  is  the  tropical  heat,  the 
African  fever  has  slain  its  tens  of  thousands,  ' '  the 
white  man's  graveyard"  is  the  gruesome  but  fitting 
epithet  applied,  and  the  cost  of  efforts  to  evangelize  has 
been  exceeding  great. 

The  first  missions  were  singularly  disastrous.  The 
Moravians  were  the  pioneer  bearers  of  good  news,  send- 
ing two  men  as  early  as  1737  to  the  Guinea  Coast. 
But  death  snatched  away  one  after  another,  until 
baffled  at  every  point  it  was  deemed  best  to  suspend  the 
work.  Within  thirty  years  two  more  attempts  were 
made,  with  the  same  result,  after  nine  had  laid  down 
their  lives.  In  1 795  the  English  Baptist  Society  entered 
Sierra  Leone,  but  the  indiscretion  of  one  missionary, 
and  the  ill  health  of  the  other,  proved  fatal  to  the  under- 
taking. The  next  year  the  London,  Glasgow,  and 
Edinburgh  societies  united  to  open  work  among  the 
Foulahs,  each  supplying  two  representatives,  and  this 
effort  also  came  to  nothing,  through  the  combined 
agency  of  dissension  and  disease.  No  permanent  work 
was  set  on  foot  until  the  Church  Missionary  Society  ap- 
peared in  1804,  and  even  now  long  waiting  and  heavy 
endurance  of  discouragement  and  disaster  were  de- 
manded. The  tide  of  anti-slavery  conviction  was  then 
rapidly  rising  in  England  under  the  arguments  and 
appeals  of  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce,  and  in  1807  vic- 
tory came  in  the  shape  of  statutes  prohibiting  the  traffic 
in  slaves.  Sierra  Leone  had  been  purchased  in  1787  by 
an  English  company,  as  an  asylum  for  a  number  of 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  215 

bondmen  who  had  been  liberated  by  the  British  troops 
during  the  progress  of  the  American  Revolution,  and 
here  they  had  been  set  down  and  left  in  a  condition  in 
every  particular  most  appalling.  And  to  this  mass 
reeking  with  nameless  vices  were  added  from  time  to 
time  other  thousands  rescued  from  slave  ships,  until 
two  hundred  African  nations  and  tongues  were  united  to 
constitute  a  combination  of  babel  and  hell.  For  years 
it  seemed  as  though  nothing  could  be  accomplished,  but 
at  length  a  wonderful  transformation  began.  But,  ah, 
the  loss  of  life.  In  twelve  years  twenty-six  had  entered 
the  work,  of  whom  fifteen  had  died.  In  eight  months 
of  1823  fourteen  were  cut  off  from  the  mission,  eleven 
being  either  missionaries  of  their  wives,  while  by  1826, 
out  of  seventy-nine,  only  fourteen  remained  to  carry  on 
the  arduous  campaign.  In  1827  Fourah  Bay  college 
was  founded,  and  with  the  name  of  Samuel  Crowther 
standing  first  upon  the  roll.  Since  then  upwards  of 
eighty  Africans  have  here  been  trained  for  the  ministry, 
some  of  them  for  stations  of  special  honor  and  useful- 
ness. The  diocese  of  Sierra  Leone  has  existed  since 
1852,  and  since  1862  the  native  church  has  been  "  self- 
governing,  self-supporting  and  self-extending."  In 
1843  t^6  Yoruba  mission  was  opened  far  down  the  coast 
towards  the  mouth  of  the  Niger,  with  Crowther  to  lead, 
and  in  1857  a  third  one  some  distance  up  that  stream. 
In  1864  Crowther,  the  African  and  ex-slave,  was  con- 
secrated in  Canterbury  Cathedral  first  Bishop  of  the 
Niger.  After  three  generations  of  steadfast  endurance 
and  resolute  struggle,  29,000  native  Christians  are 
found  to  represent  the  results  achieved  for  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  11,714  communicants,  and  8,861  pupils  in  the 
schools.  To  these  ministers  a  missionary  force  of  18 


2l6  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

ordained  Europeans  and  60  ordained  natives,  and  318 
other  native  helpers. 

As  early  as  1769  Dr.  Coke  devised  a  scheme  for 
carrying  the  Gospel  to  West  Africa  which  proved  a 
failure;  but  in  1811  the  Wesleyans  entered  Sierra 
Leone  to  remain  and  do  valiant  and  most  efficient 
service  in  supplanting  grossest  barbarism  with  Christian 
civilization.  Of  course  the  early  missionaries  were 
compelled  to  face  the  same  sore  trials  to  which  their 
brethren  of  the  Church  of  England  were  exposed.  At 
the  end  of  forty  years,  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-three 
who  had  come  out,  fifty-three  had  died,  and  others  had 
returned  broken  in  health.  To  save  life,  a  period  of 
seven  years  of  service  was  fixed  upon,  to  be  followed  by 
a  season  of  rest  and  recuperation  in  a  better  climate, 
afterwards  shortened  to  three  years  and  finally  to  two. 
But  before  the  terrible  lesson  of  wisest  precaution  had 
been  thoroughly  learned,  in  the  Senegambia  mission  ad- 
joining more  than  half  found  graves  in  pagan  soil. 
But,  for  all  this  mortality,  there  was  no  lack  of  candi- 
dates to  fill  the  places  of  those  who  fell,  and  the  spirit 
of  many  appears  in  the  words  of  one  who  declared  : 
"  The  more  I  hear  of  the  difficulties  and  dangers,  the 
more  anxious  I  am  to  go ;  "  and  when  his  mother  pro- 
tested, "  If  you  go  to  Africa  you  will  be  the  death  of 
me,"  replied,  "  And  if  you  do  not  let  me  go,  you  will 
be  the  death  of  me  !  "  With  such  intrepid  devotion 
the  ground  was  held  and  other  fields  were  occupied, 
until  now  there  are  four  principal  missions,  the  later 
ones  being  the  Gold  Coast,  Lagos  and  Dahomey.  In  all 
there  are  203  chapels  in  use,  with  746  other  preaching 
places,  71  missionaries  and  assistant  missionaries,  102 
native  catechists,  and  877  native  preachers;  the  pupils 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  217 

in  the  schools  number  25,494,  the  church  members 
18,393,  and  the  attendants  upon  public  services  42,671. 

The  American  Baptists  entered  Liberia  in  1821,  send- 
ing two  colored  men,  one  of  whom,  Lott  Gary,  had  been 
a  slave  and  had  purchased  his  freedom.  That  colony 
had  just  been  founded  for  the  benefit  of  emancipated  ne- 
groes, and  numbers  of  this  class  had  presently  been 
transported  thither.  At  the  end  of  fifteen  years  five 
churches  were  in  existence,  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
members,  but  all  were  immigrants  from  the  United 
States,  with  not  a  converted  idolater  among  them.  And 
of  ten  white  missionaries  who  had  come  to  share  the 
burden  of  evangelistic  toil,  all  but  one  had  died  or  taken 
their  departure.  Eight  more  were  sent  to  take  their 
places,  but  five  had  soon  succumbed  to  the  climate,  or 
had  fled  to  escape  death.  After  a  long  period  of  such 
experiences,  in  1856  the  mission  was  suspended,  to  be  in 
a  sense  revived  in  the  Kongo  valley. 

The  American  Presbyterians  (O.  S.)  sent  missionaries 
to  Liberia  in  1832,  and  no  long  time  elapsed  before  the 
entire  six  had  fallen  victims  to  the  fever.  After  ten 
years  colored  ministers  were  substituted  for  white,  with 
such  excellent  results  that  a  presbytery  was  organized  in 
1848.  Six  years  before  this,  however,  a  second  mission 
was  opened  to  the  south  of  the  Bight  of  Biafra,  upon  the 
Gabun  River,  and  in  1850  a  third  upon  Corisco  Island 
at  no  great  distance.  The  Gabun  work  was  organized 
in  1842  by  the  American  Board,  and  was  carried  on  un- 
til 1871,  when  it  was  turned  over  to  the  Presbyterians, 
whose  two  main  bodies  had  been  united  the  year  pre- 
ceding. Stations  have  been  opened  some  hundreds  of 
miles  up  the  Ogowe  River.  The  West  African  field  in- 
cludes 6  principal  and  58  subordinate  stations,  manned 


2l8  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

by  9  ordained  missionaries  and  4  ordained  natives,  22 
unordained  Americans  and  46  unordained  natives.  The 
communicants  number  1,241,  and  489  pupils  are  in  the 
schools. 

The  Basle  Society  has  suffered  as  much  and  as  nobly, 
and  has  gained  as  many  trophies,  as  any  other.  Begin- 
ning with  1827,  eight  missionaries  were  sent  in  three 
companies  to  toil  in  Liberia,  but  all  either  died  or  were 
compelled  to  leave.  The  next  year  four  were  despatched 
to  the  Guinea  coast,  and  two  more  followed  a  little  later, 
but  ere  long  only  one  remained,  and  three  times  he  was 
brought  to  death's  door.  Removing  the  station  to  higher 
ground,  better  health  was  secured,  and  since  then  the 
days  of  extreme  darkness  have  passed  away.  In  1887, 
when  the  colony  was  annexed  to  Germany,  the  missions 
at  Kamerun  and  Victoria,  which  the  English  Baptists 
had  founded,  were  transferred  to  the  Basle  Society.  The 
experiment  was  tried  with  considerable  success  of  em- 
ploying colored  ministers  from  the  West  Indies.  The 
number  of  toilers  is  now  86  men,  46  women,  and  more 
than  400  native  helpers  of  all  grades.  In  the  schools  are 
8,587  pupils,  in  the  churches  are  10,420  communicants, 
and  in  the  congregations  are  21,795  native  Christians. 

The  American  Methodists  made  their  advent  into  Li- 
beria in  1832,  sending  Melville  Cox  as  pioneer.  Before 
leaving  home  he  said  to  an  intimate  friend,  "If  I  die, 
you  must  come  out  and  write  my  epitaph."  "I  will, 
but  what  shall  I  write?"  "Write,  Let  a  thousand  fall 
before  Africa  be  given  up."  A  few  months  finished  his 
career,  but  successors  came,  and  acting  upon  that  noble 
motto,  have  pushed  steadily  forward  to  success.  Of  late 
the  work  of  supervision  has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Bishop  Hartzell  and  is  carried  on  by  quite  a  company  of 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  219 

missionaries,  assisted  by  upwards  of  30  native  local 
preachers.  The  churches  have  upwards  of  2,900  com- 
municants, and  the  schools  about  200  pupils. 

The  Mendi  Mission,  established  in  1842,  by  the 
American  Missionary  Association,  had  a  peculiar  origin. 
Three  years  before,  the  slave  ship  Amistad  had  been  cap- 
tured, and  found  in  possession  of  the  negroes  who  had 
risen  up  against  the  captain  and  crew  and  overpowered 
them.  After  a  long  and  bitter  contest  in  the  courts, 
John  Quincy  Adams  being  one  of  their  defenders,  the 
bondmen  were  declared  free,  and  afterwards  by  certain 
philanthropic  persons  were  sent  back  to  Africa,  with 
missionaries  to  give  them  the  Gospel,  and  a  settlement 
was  made  in  the  Sherbro  country,  on  the  coast  of  Sierra 
Leone.  Later  when  the  mortality  became  almost  beyond 
endurance,  the  effort  was  made  to  gain  a  supply  of  Afri- 
cans, or  men  of  African  descent.  In  1883  the  whole 
work  was  turned  over  to  the  United  Brethren,  who  had 
long  been  laboring  in  close  proximity.  The  number  of 
Christians  is  about  5,000. 

The  American  Episcopalians  entered  Liberia  in  1834, 
sending  two  teachers  and  later  a  clergyman.  Through 
much  tribulation  the  work  has  been  carried  on  from  that 
day  to  this  with  proportions  constantly  increasing.  At 
the  head  is  now  found  a  colored  bishop,  and  from  seven 
principal  stations  the  light  of  truth  is  diffused  through 
the  surrounding  gloom.  The  clergy  number  18,  of  whom 
i  is  American  and  1 7  are  native,  whose  labors  are  sup- 
plemented by  70  lay-readers,  catechists,  etc.  There  are 
1,707  communicants,  about  3,000  attendants  upon  the 
public  services,  and  upwards  of  1,100  pupils  in  the 
schools. 

The  United   Presbyterians  of  Scotland  sent  mission- 


220  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

aries  to  Old  Calabar,  lying  between  the  mouth  of  the 
Niger  and  that  of  the  Kongo,  and  in  1846,  with  the  de- 
sign of  manning  the  mission  with  Africans.  Eight  prin- 
cipal stations  are  sustained  by  12  ordained  men,  3  of 
them  being  natives,  with  the  aid  of  10  other  Europeans 
and  33  natives.  There  are  865  church  members  and 
550  in  the  schools. 

In  1847  the  North  German  Society  sent  four  men  to 
plant  a  mission  upon  the  Gold  Coast,  not  far  from  Daho- 
man  territory,  but  before  a  location  could  be  made,  only 
one  was  left  alive.  Others  came  and  the  same  morality 
continued,  so  that  after  forty  years,  out  of  one  hundred 
and  ten  who  had  volunteered  to  face  deadly  peril  from 
the  fever,  fifty-six  had  died,  and  forty  had  retired  with 
constitutions  broken,  while  out  of  fifty-six  children  born 
in  missionary  homes  only  twenty-six  survived.  At  one 
time,  so  past  endurance  seemed  the  situation,  that  the 
work  was  abandoned,  though  only  to  be  taken  up  again 
in  1853.  Keta,  then  simply  a  harbor,  was  chosen  as  the 
location  for  a  settlement,  while  several  stations  were 
opened  in  the  vicinity  in  later  years.  Divers  wars 
among  the  surrounding  tribes  brought  disaster.  Not  un- 
til quite  recently  have  any  considerable  signs  of  promise 
begun  to  appear.  Since  the  climate  is  so  fatal  to  whites, 
especial  pains  are  now  taken  to  train  up  natives  to  take 
the  burden  of  toil,  of  whom  some  are  educated  in  the 
mission  and  others  in  Germany.  Twenty-eight  Euro- 
peans, men  and  women,  are  engaged  in  evangelistic 
effort,  with  200  native  helpers.  In  the  schools  are  1,487 
pupils,  in  the  churches  1,738  communicants,  and  the 
congregations  about  3,000  who  have  put  themselves  under 
Christian  instruction. 

The  American  Lutherans  (General  Synod)  in  1860 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  aax 

laid  the  foundations  of  a  missionary  settlement  in  Li- 
beria, securing  for  their  uses  a  grant  of  several  hundred 
acres  of  land.  From  the  families  of  recaptured  slaves 
forty  children  were  selected  and  bound  out  by  the  gov- 
ernment to  the  mission,  to  be  educated  and  receive  man- 
ual training.  The  culture  of  sugar  cane,  rice  and  coffee 
is  a  source  of  income.  The  chief  hindrance  to  large 
progress  is  found,  not  in  the  climate,  or  in  prevalent 
barbarism  or  heathenism,  so  much  as  in  the  demoraliza- 
tion resulting  from  the  vast  quantities  of  rum  imported 
from  Europe  and  America.  The  force  employed  is  but 
small,  consisting  of  but  four  persons,  with  one  ordained 
and  several  unordained  natives  to  assist.  The  pupils 
number  about  225  and  the  church  members  some  170. 
In  addition  to  the  societies  named  must  be  added  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  which  has  eight  represen- 
tatives and  six  native  helpers,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
members  in  the  churches  and  about  the  same  number  in 
the  schools.  Lagos  and  Abeokuta  are  among  the  princi- 
pal stations.  The  United  Methodist  Free  Church  is  also 
represented  on  the  west  coast,  as  well  as  the  colored 
Baptists  and  Methodists  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
Methodist  Protestant  Church.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
while  a  few  diminutive  sections  have  been  quite  abund- 
antly supplied  with  the  Gospel,  like  Sierra  Leone,  Li- 
beria, and  the  region  lying  in  the  vicinity  of  the  mouths 
of  the  Niger,  the  bulk  of  the  vast  stretch  of  four  thou- 
sand miles  of  coast  is  even  yet  practically  untouched. 
And  also  that  with  few  exceptions  it  is  only  the  seaboard 
and  a  narrow  strip  bordering  thereon  which  have  be- 
gun to  receive  the  light  of  life,  while  the  boundless  in- 
terior remains  in  the  blackness  of  darkness  of  ignorance 
and  sin.  In  making  an  estimate  of  what  has  been  ac- 


222  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

complished,  of  course  the  reduction  to  writing  of  some 
two  score  languages  and  dialects  is  by  no  means  to  be 
forgotten,  or  the  translations  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the 
creation  of  a  considerable  literature.  But,  at  the  very 
best,  after  a  century  has  passed  since  the  first  mission- 
aries touched  the  shores  with  the  message  of  salvation, 
the  redemption  of  West  Africa  is  yet  to  be  achieved. 
What  are  these  among  so  many?  The  figures  which 
follow  will  give  at  least  some  idea  of  the  spiritual  forces 
at  work,  and  of  the  visible  rewards  of  toil.  Twelve  so- 
cieties are  performing  the  bulk  of  the  evangelizing  work 
with  375  American  and  European  agents  and  1,820  native 
helpers.  In  the  churches  are  64,598  members  and  in 
the  schools  49,894  pupils.  The  number  of  adherents  is 
upwards  of  180,000. 

WEST  CENTRAL  AFRICA. 

In  its  present  use,  this  phrase  is  equivalent  to  the 
Kongo  Basin,  or  the  Kongo  Free  State,  including  thus 
the  equatorial  portion,  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
vicinity  of  the  great  African  lakes.  It  is  in  this  exten- 
sive region,  together  with  the  corresponding  one  stretch- 
ing from  its  eastern  limits  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  that 
within  the  last  two  decades  a  most  remarkable  develop- 
ment of  organized  efforts  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
Dark  Continent  has  occurred.  And  whatever  has  been 
undertaken  is  the  result  primarily  of  what  Livingstone 
endured  and  achieved,  with  Stanley  and  King  Leopold 
to  carry  forward  towards  completion  what  he  so  mag- 
nificently planned  and  initiated.  As  we  saw,  as  far  back 
as  1850,  the  fervid  and  prescient  Krapf  dreamed  of  a 
day  approaching  when  a  chain  of  missions  should  be  es- 
tablished along  "  the  high  roads  of  Central  Africa"  from 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  223 

sea  to  sea,  and  this  missionary  explorer  was  permitted 
to  live  to  see  his  hope  and  expectations  change  to  vis- 
ible fact.  It  was  in  1866  that  Livingstone  crossed  the 
Zambesi  to  devote  the  residue  of  his  days  to  journeys 
here  and  there,  searching  for  the  head  waters  of  the  un- 
known Kongo.  And  it  was  not  until  August  of  1877, 
and  after  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  days  of  inces- 
sant hardship  and  peril,  having  followed  its  course  for 
thousands  of  miles,  that  Stanley  reached  the  mouth  of 
that  majestic  stream,  and  the  civilized  world  began  to 
have  knowledge  of  what  treasures,  and  wonders,  and 
peoples,  the  immense  interior  possessed.  Next  came  five 
years  of  further  exploration  of  the  upper  waters,  under 
the  direction  of  the  same  fertile  brain  and  indomitable 
will,  and  the  hewing  out  of  a  road  past  the  long  stretch 
of  rapids,  and  after  that,  in  1884-5,  tne  sessions  of  the 
famous  Berlin  Conference,  which  brought  into  being  the 
Kongo  Free  State,  forbidding  the  slave  trade,  promising 
to  end  domestic  slavery  at  the  soonest,  and  guaranteeing 
to  all  liberty  of  conscience  and  religious  toleration. 
Committed  to  the  care  of  the  philanthropic  King  of 
Belgium,  ever  since  efforts  have  been  unceasing  to  es- 
tablish universal  peace  and  public  order,  and  to  encour- 
age the  entrance  and  prosperity  of  every  worthy  enter- 
prise. And  thus  it  was  that  a  territory  of  1,000,000 
square  miles,  and  a  population  estimated  at  some  20,- 
000,000,  were  uncovered  to  the  gaze  of  Christendom, 
and  made  quite  easily  accessible  to  missionary  effort. 

The  story  of  what  has  been  done  to  redeem  the  Kongo 
Basin  from  savagery  and  degrading  fetish  worship  is  a 
short  one  of  necessity,  so  few  are  the  years  covered 
thereby,  nor  can  long  columns  of  impressive  statistics  be 
supplied.  Up  to  the  present  hour  the  task  has  been 


224  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

mainly  that  of  choosing  and  opening  stations,  learning 
the  language,  and  carrying  all  manner  of  matters 
through  the  trying  preliminary  and  experimental  stage. 
It  is  not  at  all  strange  that  the  important  geographical 
discoveries  just  referred  to  produced  a  profound  impres- 
sion upon  the  churches,  that  enthusiasm  was  stirred,  and 
that  not  a  few  were  presently  found  ready  and  eager  to 
enter  in  at  the  door  just  opened.  Indeed,  without  wait- 
ing for  all  the  preparatory  steps  to  be  taken,  as  early  as 
1878,  the  year  in  which  Stanley's  "  Darkest  Africa  " 
was  published,  and  hence  seven  years  before  the  Free 
State  was  set  up,  the  Livingstone  Inland  Missionary 
Society  had  planted  a  station  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Kongo.  H.  Grattan  Guinness  and  the  English  Baptist 
Missionary  Society  were  active  in  this  movement.  By 
1884  such  energy  had  been  displayed  that  the  one  sta- 
tion had  increased  to  seven,  of  which  three  were  upon 
the  Upper  Kongo,  seventeen  laborers  were  engaged, 
while  a  steam  launch  below  the  rapids,  and  the  steamer 
"Henry  Reed"  above,  were  in  use  to  facilitate  inter- 
course and  enlargement.  In  that  year  the  mission  was 
turned  over  to  the  American  Baptists,  whose  work  in 
Liberia  had  previously  been  abandoned.  The  fatal  fever 
has  carried  off  its  victims,  the  Arab  slave-stealer  has  not 
yet  ceased  from  his  destructive  raids,  and  many  are  the 
trials  to  faith  and  patience,  but  men  and  money  have 
been  liberally  supplied,  and  the  return  for  all  the  ex- 
penditure is  given  in  small  part  in  these  figures.  The 
missionaries  are  16  in  number  with  14  wives,  3  un- 
married women  and  3  physicians  in  addition,  as  well 
as  73  native  preachers  and  79  other  native  helpers;  a 
total  of  185  laborers,  of  whom  the  bulk  are  Africans. 
The  8  churches  have  a  membership  of  3,099,  the  bap- 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  225 

tisms  were  612  in  1901,  the  scholars  in  the  schools  were 
2,605,  and  tne  adherents  may  be  estimated  at  about 
3,000. 

The  English  Baptists  were  among  the  first  to  enter  this 
new  territory,  receiving  the  impulse  in  part  from  an 
offer  of  $5,000  by  Mr.  Arthington  of  Leeds,  on  condi- 
tion that  a  mission  be  planted  at  once.  A  beginning  was 
made  in  1878  upon  the  Lower  Kongo,  and  in  Portuguese 
territory.  This  society  has  two  steamers^  and  a  force  of 
58  missionaries,  distributed  above  and  below  the  great 
rapids,  has  gathered  some  3,000  pupils  into  its  schools, 
and  about  600  members  into  its  churches.  The  losses 
by  death  have  been  peculiarly  afflictive,  one  entire 
family  of  consecrated  men  and  women,  the  Combers, 
consisting  of  two  brothers,  their  wives,  and  a  sister, 
having  laid  down  their  lives. 

Of  several  other  undertakings  only  the  names  and  the 
dates  of  entrance  can  be  given.  The  Swedish  Society 
has  three  stations  with  about  a  score  of  missionaries  on 
the  north  bank  of  the  lower  river,  and  for  ten  years  has 
been  sounding  out  the  glad  tidings.  Bishop  Taylor  has 
opened  several  stations  which  are  based  on  the  principle 
of  self-support.  In  1889  the  Congo-Balolo  mission  was 
established  by  the  East  London  Missionary  Institute, 
taking  for  its  share  of  the  broad  field  certain  southern 
or  eastern  branches  above  Equatorville.  Though  the 
ravages  of  the  destroyer  have  been  fearful  in  their  ranks, 
and  little  beyond  foundation  work  has  been  accom- 
plished, such  consecration  and  readiness  to  toil  and  suffer 
as  have  been  abundantly  displayed,  cannot  fail  to  tell 
eventually  in  the  conversion  of  souls,  and  the  building 
up  of  Christian  institutions.  In  1888  Arnot's  mission 
was  located  in  the  extreme  southeast  corner  of  the  Kongo 


226  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

Basin,  so  far  away  indeed  as  to  be  most  easily  reached 
from  Benguela,  or  even  from  the  east  coast. 

In  all,  eight  societies  have  planted  stations  in  the  west 
central  portion  of  Africa,  and  though  in  the  first  ten 
years  fifty-five  who  entered  this  field  were  buried  within 
its  soil,  the  number  of  survivors  is  not  far  from  200, 
and  the  number  of  converts  is  about  4,500.  From  the 
coast  the  word  of  life  has  already  penetrated  at  least  a 
thousand  miles  towards  the  center  of  the  continent,  and 
the  work  is  well  taken  in  hand  of  reducing  to  writing 
several  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty  languages  and 
dialects  said  to  exist  in  this  area,  and  of  translating  into 
it  God's  wonderful  message  to  men.  The  infamous  and 
desolating  slave  trade  seems  to  be  nearing  its  end, 
steamers  are  steadily  multiplying  on  all  parts  of  the 
river  and  its  branches,  the  railroad  in  a  few  years  will 
be  completed  to  connect  the  lower  with  the  upper 
waters,  the  sacred  task  will  certainly  be  carried  forward 
in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  and  will  be  properly  enlarged, 
the  divine  blessing  will  not  be  witheld,  and  therefore, 
only  time  is  needed  to  make  the  desert  to  bud,  blossom, 
and  bear  abundant  fruit. 

EAST  CENTRAL  AFRICA. 

This  portion  of  the  continent  includes  so  much  of  the 
eastern  coast  as  lies  between  Abyssinia  and  the  mouth  of 
the  Zambesi,  the  region  lying  about  the  great  lakes,  and 
the  area  intervening.  For  size  it  surpasses  the  portion 
last  considered,  but  the  population  is  very  much  less. 
The  bulk  of  missionary  work  thus  far  undertaken  is  con- 
fined to  the  seaboard  and  the  vicinity  of  the  lakes,  and  be- 
cause of  the  difficulties  of  travel  and  transportation  else- 
where. Though  the  Portuguese  had  been  for  centuries 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  227 

in  nominal  possession,  and  engaged  in  trade  with  the 
natives,  no  perceptible  impression  had  been  made  upon 
the  universal  barbarism  and  superstition.  The  high 
honor  of  pioneering  for  the  Gospel  belongs  to  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  and  to  Krapf  and  Rebmann  its  rep- 
resentatives, and  the  remotest  beginnings  were  made  as 
far  back  as  1839  in  the  extreme  northeast.  Krapf  had 
landed  at  Zeila,  on  the  Gulf  of  Aden,  hoping  to  be  able 
to  enter  Abyssinia,  but  failing  in  that  project,  after  sev- 
eral extensive  tours  through  Somaliland  and  Gallaland, 
concluded  in  1844  to  locate  upon  the  Zanzibar  coast, 
with  the  especial  design  of  reaching  the  Gallas  from  this 
direction.  Two  years  later  he  was  joined  by  Rebmann, 
and  for  nearly  ten  years  these  most  devoted,  and  enter- 
prising, and  fearless,  servants  of  God,  gave  themselves 
without  stint  to  preaching,  teaching,  and  translating  the 
Scriptures  ;  with  all  the  rest  also  pushing  back  repeatedly 
far  from  the  coast,  and  gathering  a  mass  of  most  import- 
ant geographical  knowledge. 

The  exceedingly  fruitful  labors  of  the  one  continued 
until  1855,  and  of  the  other  until  1875.  But  Krapf, 
though  nominally  no  longer  a  missionary,  yet  returned 
twice  to  the  scene  of  his  labors,  to  lead  forth  companies 
of  Christian  toilers,  and  to  aid  with  his  counsels  in  lay- 
ing foundations.  It  was  in  1861  that  the  United  Metho- 
dist Free  Church  determined  to  open  a  mission  in  East 
Africa,  and  despatched  four  men  with  the  German  apos- 
tle as  leader.  The  Galla  country  was  chosen  as  a  field. 
Sickness  and  death  have  visited  the  stations,  in  a  savage 
raid  one  missionary  and  his  wife  were  murdered,  and  the 
forays  of  the  Arab  slave  dealers  have  caused  much  em- 
barrassment ;  but  with  no  great  number  of  converts  gath- 
ered as  yet,  the  outlook  is  full  of  encouragement.  In 


228  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

1865  a  Swedish  mission  was  opened  among  the  Gallas  ; 
this  also  with  the  advice  and  assistance  of  Dr.  Krapf. 
The  sacrifices  have  been  great,  the  exertions  have  been 
enormous,  the  tangible  gains  have  been  relatively  slight, 
but  eleven  Europeans  and  a  larger  number  of  natives  con- 
tinue to  crowd  on  the  Lord's  work,  adding  to  the  usual 
forms  of  evangelistic  effort  a  medical  mission  and  the 
teaching  of  trades. 

But  it  was  not  until  after  the  death  of  Livingstone,  in 
1873,  that  the  grand  impulse  was  given  to  missions  in 
East  Central  Africa ;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  affirm 
that  whatsoever  has  been  undertaken  since  is,  directly  or 
indirectly,  attributable  to  influences  which  went  forth 
from  the  character  and  deeds  of  this  gifted  and  conse- 
crated servant  of  Christ,  whose  endeavors  for  the  Dark 
Continent  were  so  herculean.  He  had  written  and  spoken 
much  to  the  churches  of  Great  Britain  to  quicken  their 
consciences  and  inflame  their  zeal.  The  earliest  response 
was  made  in  the  organization  of  the  Universities'  Mission 
in  1859,  and  the  sending  later  of  a  pioneer  force,  which 
finally  located  in  Zanzibar  in  1862  to  make  preparation 
for  an  advance  upon  the  mainland,  in  the  meantime  train- 
ing a  company  of  released  slave  children,  that  they  might 
form  the  nucleus  of  a  Christian  settlement.  Here  is  the 
central  seat  of  the  mission.  A  church  has  been  erected 
upon  ground  once  occupied  by  a  slave  market,  where 
thousands  of  slaves  were  once  sold  every  year.  About 
the  same  time  most  costly  efforts  were  commenced  to 
open  work  upon  Lake  Nyassa,  as  well  as  at  some  eligi- 
ble points  between  the  coast  and  that  important  body  of 
water.  It  was  not  until  1882,  and  after  various  experi- 
ments, that  a  permanent  location  was  finally  secured 
upon  the  east  shore,  though  a  half-way  station  had  been 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  229 

occupied  to  the  north  of  the  Rovuma  River  six  years 
before.  Steamers  now  traverse  the  lake,  doing  valuable 
service  for  the  kingdom.  This  body  of  missionaries  rep- 
resents the  high  church  section  of  the  Church  of  England, 
but  is  second  to  none  for  devotion  and  readiness  to  risk 
all  and  suffer  all  with  joy.  Celibacy  is  an  essential  quali- 
fication, while  clergymen,  teachers,  mechanics,  etc.,  are 
held  in  equal  honor,  and  none  receives  any  remuneration 
beyond  board,  clothing,  and  money  sufficient  for  corre- 
spondence. The  entire  force  numbers  329,  of  whom  109 
are  Europeans  and  220  are  Africans,  and  52  are  women. 
The  pupils  in  the  schools  number  4,998,  the  communi- 
cants 3,681,  and  the  adult  adherents  11,600. 

The  English  Church  Society,  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  entered  East  Africa  in  1844,  was  stirred  to  new  ex- 
ertions and  substantial  enlargement  in  1876  by  the  famous 
letter  of  Stanley  relating  to  Uganda,  and  the  subsequent 
special  gifts,  amounting  in  all  to  ^£24,000,  and  a  party 
of  eight  was  consecrated  to  the  momentous  task  of  plant- 
ing Christianity  far  inland  upon  the  northwestern  coast 
of  Victoria  Nyanza,  a  region  almost  inaccessible.  Alex- 
ander Mackay  was  among  the  number.  A  year  after  ar- 
riving at  Zanzibar  only  one-half  of  the  party  were  left 
alive  to  reach  their  destination,  and  two  of  them  were 
soon  murdered  by  the  natives.  The  events  which  have 
since  transpired  are  both  inspiring  and  tragic  in  the  ex- 
treme, but  for  lack  of  space  must  be  left  unmentioned  in 
detail.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  to  Hannington,  skin  by  sav- 
age hands,  Bishop  Tucker  has  succeeded  ;  British  author- 
ity is  firmly  established  in  Uganda,  insuring  for  the  future 
good  order  and  safety  to  life  and  property  ;  a  railroad  to 
the  coast  is  in  fair  prospect,  and  several  intermediate 
mission  stations  have  been  occupied.  The  work  of  this 


230  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

society,  including  the  coast  district  and  the  interior,  may 
be  summed  up  and  set  forth  by  these  few  figures.  The 
stations  number  44,  the  clergymen  37,  laymen  31,  and 
women  64;  30  ordained  natives  and  2,110  unordained; 
9,108  in  the  schools;  8,756  communicants;  and  a  body 
of  nearly  31,146  adherents. 

In  1875  the  Scottish  Free  Church  sent  a  missionary 
expedition  up  the  Shire  in  a  little  steamer  provided  for 
the  purpose,  which  was  transported  on  the  backs  of  men 
past  the  obstructing  cataracts,  and  finally  launched 
upon  the  waters  of  Lake  Nyassa.  The  location  for  a 
mission  was  fixed  about  half  way  up  the  western  shore, 
to  which  others  have  since  been  added  near  the  north 
end  and  also  towards  the  interior  to  the  west.  Especial 
trouble  has  been  experienced  from  the  violence  of  the 
slave-stealers.  A  total  of  484  Christian  agents  are 
employed,  of  whom  the  bulk  are  native  teachers.  Of 
34  Europeans  only  9  are  ordained,  and  13  are  women. 
In  1901  scholars  to  the  number  of  11,277  were  enrolled, 
and  1,576  communicants. 

Almost  at  the  same  time  the  Established  Church  of 
Scotland  was  looking  towards  the  same  region,  so  closely 
connected  with  the  career  of  Livingstone,  as  a  field  for 
the  planting  of  Christian  institutions,  and  in  1874  com- 
menced operations  which-  now  center  in  Blantyre,  situ- 
ated at  some  distance  to  the  south  of  Lake  Nyassa, 
and  east  of  the  Shire  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Shirwa. 
In  the  earlier  period  serious  trouble  befell  on  account  of 
the  zeal  displayed  in  harboring  fugitive  slaves,  and 
because  the  missionaries  hesitated  not  to  execute 
"Scotch  justice"  upon  the  natives  for  their  criminal 
misdeeds,  but  of  late  solid  progress  has  been  made. 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  231 

Among  other  things,  a  beautiful  church  has  been 
erected  almost  wholly  by  native  hands. 

As  yet  Tanganyika,  the  third  of  the  large  African 
lakes,  remained  unvisited  by  messengers  of  the  Gospel. 
But  in  1877  the  London  Society  began  an  arduous 
attempt  to  reach  and  hold  its  shores  for  the  Master.  A 
party  of  six  set  forth  westward  from  Zanzibar,  later 
dividing  into  two  parties,  of  which  one  reached  Ujiji 
after  some  sixteen  months  of  struggle  and  vexatious 
delays,  while  the  other  reached  Urambo,  a  point  lying 
between  the  lake  and  the  coast,  not  until  1879.  "  The 
mission  has  passed  through  ten  years  of  almost  unpre- 
cedented trials,  owing  to  the  failure  of  health,  and 
deaths,  in  the  mission  circle."  Troubles  are  not  yet 
ended,  though  it  is  hoped  that  the  worst  has  been  en- 
dured. A  steamer  is  now  in  use  which  cost  the  toil  of 
six  years  to  construct. 

In  days  yet  more  recent  the  Moravians  and  the 
Berlin  Society  have  opened  work  to  the  north  of 
Nyassa,  between  that  and  Tanganyika,  and  the  East 
African  Scottish  Mission  has  been  located  some  two 
hundred  miles  to  the  northwest  of  Mombasa,  and  about 
fifty  miles  to  the  north  of  Kilimanjaro,  Africa's  highest 
mountain.  Kibwezi,  which  is  chosen  as  the  center,  lies 
upon  the  caravan  route  to  Uganda,  and  at  an  altitude  of 
three  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  And  finally,  to  the 
south  and  west  of  the  lake  region,  upon  the  upper 
Zambezi,  among  the  Barotse,  for  several  years  has 
labored  and  suffered  M.  Coillard  of  the  Paris  Mission, 
with  Arnot's  Mission  in  Garenganze  not  very  remote. 

All  these  undertakings,  second  to  none  for  difficulties 
and  dangers  attending  their  progress,  and  urged  on 
with  resolution  and  devotion  nowhere  surpassed,  are  yet 


rj2  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

in  their  feeble  infancy,  and  the  glad  harvest  season  is  In 
days  to  come.  And  there  remaineth  yet  very  much 
land  to  be  possessed.  The  few  toilers  now  in  the  field 
must  be  increased  to  a  host,  and  over  all  this  vast  area, 
one-third  the  size  of  the  United  States  less  Alaska,  must 
be  heard  the  sweet  story  of  the  cross,  and  be  planted  the 
various  institutions  of  Christianity.  And  all  this  shall 
surely  come  to  pass. 

NORTH  AFRICA. 

There  remains  to  be  mentioned  a  division  of  the 
continent  which  extends  from  the  Red  Sea  to  the  At- 
lantic, and  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  southern 
boundary  of  Abyssinia  and  the  desert  of  Sahara,  or 
spreads  over  about  fifty  degrees  of  longitude,  and 
twenty-five  of  latitude.  According  to  the  best  estimates 
the  population  is  at  least  25,000,000.  Almost  every- 
where Mohammedanism  holds  the  seat  of  both  religious 
and  political  power.  The  only  exceptions  are,  Algeria 
under  French  sway,  Abyssinia  where  an  exceedingly 
corrupt  form  of  Christianity  wields  the  scepter,  and 
among  the  Copts,  an  insignificant  fraction  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Egypt.  The  northern  and  eastern  por- 
tions, covered  by  six  states,  were  the  theater  of  some  of 
the  early  and  notable  triumphs  of  the  Gospel,  for  cen- 
turies were  well  covered  with  churches  and  monasteries, 
and  the  millions  of  those  who  professed  to  honor  the 
Nazarene  were  second  to  none  for  zeal  fiery  and  even 
furious.  But  with  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  came 
the  irresistible  barbarian  hordes,  the  Vandals  among  the 
rest,  and  a  few  generations  after  the  terrible  Arab  in- 
vaders bringing  with  them  the  Koran  and  the  sword. 
Last  of  all  the  Turks  attained  sovereignty,  holding  at 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  233 

least  nominal  rule  even  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules. 
Through  all  the  early  decades  of  this  century  the  pirates 
of  the  Barbary  States  were  the  terror  of  Christendom,  so 
destructive  were  they  to  commerce,  and  so  eager  to 
capture  the  ' '  infidels  ' '  and  hold  them  in  slavery  until 
ransomed.  Better  days  for  civilization  began  to  dawn 
when  in  1830  France  began  to  take  vengeance  for  damage 
and  insults  upon  the  dey  of  Algiers,  and  later  when 
Mehemet  Ali  began  to  introduce  reforms  into  the  old  time 
government  of  Egypt.  These  and  other  political  revolu- 
tions prepared  the  way  for  the  re-introduction  of  Chris- 
tian efforts  and  the  rebuilding  of  Christian  institutions. 

The  work  of  evangelization  began  in  the  Nile  valley, 
and  in  the  highlands  far  to  the  south  of  the  Cataracts, 
and  in  1819  under  the  auspices  of  the  English  Church 
Society.  In  those  primitive  days  the  heart  of  Christen- 
dom went  out  with  especial  warmth  of  desire  towards 
the  corrupt  Oriental  churches,  and  hope  was  strong  that 
if  a  pure  Gospel  was  presented,  they  might  be  thor- 
oughly reformed  as  organizations,  in  both  creed  and 
practice.  To  hasten  this  happy  consummation,  five 
missionaries  were  despatched  to  Egypt  to  recover  the 
Coptic  clergy  and  people  from  the  error  of  their  ways, 
but,  after  long  and  strenuous  endeavor,  with  only  com- 
plete failure  as  the  result.  However,  while  there  a 
manuscript  translation  of  the  Scriptures  in  Amharic,  the 
vernacular  of  Abyssinia,  was  discovered,  and  this  led  to 
the  founding  of  a  mission  in  that  country  in  1830. 
After  eight  years  of  toil,  through  the  malign  influence 
of  two  French  priests,  the  entire  company  was  expelled. 
Among  them  was  Dr.  Krapf,  who  by  this  repulse  was 
led  to  transfer  the  scene  of  his  apostolic  labors  to  the 
East  African  region.  For  an  entire  decade  Bishop 


234  A  HUNDRED    YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

Gobat  was  closely  identified  with  this  enterprise  as 
leader.  It  was  not  until  1860  that  the  Egyptian  mission 
came  to  an  end.  And  it  was  about  this  time  that  the 
late  Miss  Whately,  daughter  of  the  famed  Archbishop  of 
Dublin,  commenced  her  devoted  and  most  valuable 
school  work  in  Cairo,  designed  especially  for  Moham- 
medan boys  and  girls,  which  was  also  continued,  at 
great  cost  to  herself,  for  nearly  thirty  years. 

But  1854  is  the  true  Christian  era  for  modern  Egypt, 
since  it  was  in  that  year  that  the  "  American  Mission  " 
was  founded  by  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  by  the 
entrance  of  two  missionaries  into  Cairo,  joined  three  years 
later  by  Dr.  Lansing,  who  fixed  himself  in  Alexandria, 
and  three  years  later  still  by  the  Rev.  John  Hogg.  As 
soon  as  possible  public  services  were  opened,  and  schools 
both  for  boys  and  girls,  and  tours  were  made  for  the  sale 
of  Bibles  and  other  religious  books.  The  Coptic  Church 
was  the  special  object  held  in  mind,  though  no  direct 
notice  was  taken  of  it,  and  the  immediate  result  sought 
was  the  enlightenment  of  individual  men  and  women, 
and  the  quickening  of  spiritual  life.  Persecutions  have 
been  by  no  means  wanting,  from  both  quasi  Christians 
and  Moslems,  to  try  the  endurance  of  missionaries  and 
converts,  and  not  a  few  remarkable  tokens  of  favor  from 
God  and  man  have  been  vouchsafed.  Thus,  through 
Said  Pasha  and  Ismail  Pasha  real  estate  was  donated  in 
the  Coptic  quarter  of  Cairo  worth  some  $40,000.  And 
a  wealthy  Hindu  prince,  Maharajah  Dhuleep  Singh,  son 
of  the  redoubtable  Runjeet  Singh,  monarch  of  the  Pun- 
jab, having  married  one  of  the  girls  from  the  Cairo 
mission  school,  as  a  token  of  his  grateful  interest,  sent 
an  annual  gift  until  the  total  reached  $90,000,  besides 
presenting  to  the  mission  his  boat,  the  Ibis,  for  use  in 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  235 

frequent  evangelizing  tours  up  and  down  the  Nile.  Among 
the  happiest  phases  of  the  work  is  to  be  named  the  fact 
that  other  Protestant  societies  have  not  interfered  by 
trespass  and  competition,  so  that  the  brethren  engaged 
could  bestow  their  undivided  attention  upon  the  common 
foe.  With  such  advantages,  and  the  smile  of  the  Lord 
appearing  in  various  seasons  of  revival,  progress  in  every 
sphere  of  effort  has  been  steady,  and  quite  marked.  In 
1865  Mr.  Hogg  and  others  ascended  the  river  two  hun- 
dred miles  to  Asyut,  to  make  that  city  of  30,000  a 
second  center,  and  the  year  following  a  further  advance 
was  made  of  two  hundred  and  fifteen  miles  by  the  oc- 
cupation of  Koos,  in  the  vicinity  of  Thebes.  Finally 
in  1887  a  station  was  opened  at  Assouan  (Syene),  hard 
by  the  First  Cataract  and  on  the  border  of  Nubia.  At 
the  end  of  about  forty  years  the  Gospel  is  preached  at 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  points  in  the  long,  narrow 
valley  of  the  Nile.  A  profound  impression  has  been 
made  upon  the  Coptic  Church,  and  even  upon  the  Mo- 
hammedan population,  for  from  the  latter  nearly  a  thou- 
sand children  are  found  in  the  mission  schools.  It  is 
not  often  in  the  foreign  field  that  the  toilers  in  publish- 
ing their  statistics  can  affirm  :  "  Nearly  all  the  items 
have  more  than  doubled  in  every  ten  years,  and  some  of 
them  have  doubled  in  every  five  years."  The  figures 
for  the  close  of  1901  are  as  follows:  Number  of  or- 
dained missionaries  15,  with  15  unmarried  women,  30 
native  ministers,  and  20  native  licentiates.  In  the 
churches  are  6,580  communicants,  and  in  the  schools  are 
13,406  pupils.  For  all  church  purposes  the  people  con- 
tributed $39,425,  and  for  all  school  purposes  $29,637. 

The  work  of  the  North  Africa  Mission  (English)  re- 
mains to  be  mentioned.     This  society  was  organized  in 


236  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

1 88 1,  to  meet  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  Kabyles  of  Al- 
geria, but  its  sphere  has  since  been  enlarged  to  include 
work  among  the  people  of  Morocco,  Tunis,  Tripoli,  and 
more  recently  the  Delta  of  Egypt.  The  force  in  the 
field  numbers  89,  of  whom  a  large  proportion  are 
women.  Hospital  and  dispensary  work  is  made  quite 
prominent,  and  also  visiting  from  house  to  house.  The 
Moslems  are  found  not  altogether  unapproachable,  but 
spiritually  so  barren  is  the  soil,  that  the  utmost  of  faith 
and  devotion  are  required  in  order  not  to  be  weary  in 
well-doing,  and,  not  strangely,  the  results  which  can  be 
expressed  in  a  few  words,  or  in  figures,  are  not  many  as 
yet.  O  for  the  day  to  return  when  the  glorious  Gospel 
of  salvation  shall  possess  the  entire  southern  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean  ! 

If  all  the  missionary  societies  engaged  in  African  evan- 
gelization were  included — the  great  and  the  small,  the 
general  and  the  special,  the  regular  and  the  irregular — 
they  would  number  nearly  one  hundred.  In  Dennis' 
"Centennial  Survey,"  which  is  unapproached  for  com- 
prehensiveness, and  painstaking  research,  forty-two  or- 
ganizations are  named  whose  headquarters  are  fixed  upon 
African  soil.  But  nine-tenths  of  the  results  achieved 
belong  to  less  than  fifty  societies,  and  the  bulk  to  such 
as  have  been  named  in  this  chapter  with  a  summary  of 
their  doings.  So  many  and  so  various  are  the  kinds  of 
toil  bestowed,  that  entire  accuracy  of  statement  is  im- 
possible, and  the  best  figures  obtainable  are  only  approx- 
imate. But  fortunately,  error  is  likely  to  be  on  the  side 
of  under-statement.  Nearly  3,000  European  and  Ameri- 
can missionaries  are  struggling  into  prayer  and  exhaust- 
ing their  strength  that  the  Dark  Continent  may  be  filled 
with  the  light  of  life.  Of  these  more  than  1,100  are 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  237 

ordained.  Over  400  natives  are  ordained  pastors,  and 
there  are  at  least  6,000  other  natives  engaged  in  teach- 
ing or  as  evangelists,  etc.  Some  170,000  pupils  are 
under  training  in  the  various  mission  schools,  the 
churches  have  about  240,000  members,  and  perhaps  as 
many  as  800,000  are  in  some  fair  measure  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  means  of  grace. 

Such  for  substance  is  a  statement  of  what  Christendom 
has  accomplished  and  undertaken  for  Africa  with  its 
165,000,000.  The  results  are  most  considerable  in  the 
south  where  the  messengers  of  salvation  soonest  began  to 
make  proclamation  of  the  good  news,  and  where  various 
circumstances  are  peculiarly  favorable.  Upon  the  west 
coast  along  a  line  of  some  three  thousand  miles  at  vari- 
ous points  the  graves  of  missionaries  are  dreadfully  nu- 
merous, proving  how  general  and  ardent  has  been  holy 
desire,  and  how  deadly  is  the  climate,  while  the  hun- 
dreds of  churches  and  schools,  and  the  thousands  of  con- 
verts are  conclusive  evidence  that  these  heroic  men  and 
women  did  not  die  in  vain.  Surely,  the  harvest  gathered 
is  by  no  means  inconsiderable,  and  some  slight  return 
has  been  made  for  the  woe  immeasurable  resulting  from 
the  slave  trade.  As  for  the  immense  basin  of  the  Kongo, 
its  hidden  recesses  were  first  entered  so  recently  by  civ- 
ilized men  that  thus  far  only  time  has  been  afforded  to 
break  the  surface  here  and  there  and  deposit  the  good 
seed.  Only  the  first  shoots  are  visible,  while  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear  belongs  to  the  future.  In  like  manner, 
and  for  the  same  cogent  reason,  the  region  of  the  great 
lakes  and  the  coast  of  East  Central  Africa  see  simply  the 
laying  of  foundations,  and  the  hewing  out  of  material  for 
the  building  of  the  glorious  temple  certain  to  be  reared 
therein  in  days  to  come.  Ending  our  review  with  the 


838  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

northern  section,  in  Egypt  alone  do  we  find  the  toilers 
in  sufficient  numbers,  and  their  plans  carried  forward  so 
far  towards  completion  as  to  discover  results  which  can 
be  tabulated  or  expressed  in  few  words.  And,  alas,  even 
now,  what  vast  regions  have  not  yet  been  entered  by 
Gospel  heralds,  what  millions  both  of  pagans  and  Mo- 
hammedans have  never  looked  upon  the  face  of  a  loving, 
earnest  disciple  of  Jesus  !  Who  will  help  to  hasten  the 
day  when  in  the  largest  and  most  blessed  meaning  of  the 
words,  Princes  shall  come  out  of  Egypt ;  Ethiopia  shall 
soon  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God  ! 

MADAGASCAR. 

This  island  takes  rank  among  the  largest,  being  sur- 
passed in  size  only  by  New  Guinea  and  Borneo.  Its 
length  is  about  1,000  miles,  its  breadth  about  300,  while 
the  area  is  reckoned  at  230,000  square  miles.  Africa  is 
distant  only  250  miles  at  the  nearest  point,  the  conti- 
nental and  the  insular  mass  are  often  classed  together, 
the  historical  connection  between  them  is  quite  intimate, 
and  in  various  particulars  a  striking  physical  resemblance 
may  be  traced.  Except  at  the  north,  where  a  few  bays 
break  the  coast  line,  almost  the  entire  2,000  miles  of  cir- 
cumference are  surprisingly  destitute  of  harbors.  Nor 
are  there  any  navigable  streams  by  which  the  interior  is 
made  easily  accessible  from  the  sea.  And  therefore,  like 
the  Dark  Continent,  Madagascar  is  closed  against  free 
communication  with  the  great  outlying  world.  The 
outer  rim,  which  varies  in  width  from  a  few  miles  to 
more  than  a  hundred,  is  low-lying  and  level,  and  has  a 
climate  deadly  to  all  foreigners.  A  plateau  of  consider- 
able elevation  overspreads  the  central  portions  of  the 
island,  and  from  it  rise  several  ranges  of  quite  lofty 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  239 

mountains.  Between  the  plain  and  the  plateau  at  well- 
nigh  every  point  is  found  a  stretch  of  dense  forest  some 
fifty  miles  across,  within  which  the  surface  rises  by  suc- 
cessive terraces  to  the  higher  table  land. 

No  census  has  ever  been  taken,  and  the  estimates  of 
the  population  vary  from  2,500,000  to  twice  that  num- 
ber. The  Malagasy  are  not  African  in  origin  and  race 
as  we  might  suppose,  but  Malayo-Polynesian  instead,  and 
are  believed  to  have  entered  by  incursions  separated  by 
long  intervals  of  time.  Several  distinct  tribes  may  be 
traced,  with  the  Hovas,  Sakalavas,  and  Betsileos,  among 
the  most  important,  but  all  alike  speaking  substantially 
the  same  language.  The  islanders  dwelling  in  the  in- 
terior were  not  savage  when  first  visited  by  Europeans, 
but  had  attained  to  no  inconsiderable  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion. They  were  decently  clothed  though  the  climate  is 
tropical,  cultivated  the  soil,  were  by  no  means  lacking  in 
mechanical  skill,  dwelt  in  settled  communities,  while  the 
government,  though  a  pure  despotism,  would  compare 
not  unfavorably  with  that  of  other  oriental  countries. 
Tangena  was  one  of  the  peculiar  civil  institutions,  or  the 
ordeal  of  swallowing  poison  as  a  judicial  test  of  guilt. 
The  dominant  religion  was  scarcely  above  fetish  worship. 
There  were  no  temples,  or  priesthood,  or  public  religious 
rites,  though  medicine  men  were  held  in  honor,  as  well 
as  idol-keepers,  and  belief  in  charms,  divination,  and 
witchcraft,  was  universal.  In  general  the  people  are  said 
to  be  courageous,  loyal  to  their  rulers,  affectionate,  firm 
in  their  friendships,  courteous,  kind  to  children,  the 
aged  and  the  infirm,  and  hospitable  to  strangers.  Slavery 
prevailed  extensively,  and  as  sources  of  supply  not  only 
were  captives  taken  in  war,  held  in  bondage  and  sold  for 
gain,  but  multitudes  of  Africans  imported  by  traders  were 


240  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

purchased.  Wheeled  vehicles  and  beasts  of  burden  are 
unknown  in  the  island,  and  this  because  of  the  utter  ab- 
sence of  roads.  Narrow  footpaths,  runners,  and  the 
shoulders  of  men,  furnish  the  only  means  of  communica- 
tion. Even  Antananarivo  the  capital,  a  city  of  100,000, 
though  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  sea, 
has  no  better  connection  with  its  port,  Tamatave.  And 
no  improvement  in  this  particular  is  undertaken,  in  great 
part  because  the  existing  difficulties  of  travel  are  such 
as  to  make  it  next  to  impossible  for  an  invading  army  to 
climb  through  the  rugged  forest  region  to  the  elevated 
and  populous  spaces  beyond. 

For  many  centuries  intercourse  had  been  quite  fre- 
quent and  intimate  between  the  Malagasy  and  the  Arab 
merchants  and  slave  traders,  who  had  made  a  few  set- 
tlements upon  the  northern  and  western  coasts.  The 
Portuguese  were  the  first  of  Europeans  to  visit  Madagas- 
car, and  they  undertook  at  various  times,  during  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  to  establish  themselves 
upon  the  island,  but,  time  after  time,  all  who  thus  in- 
truded were  either  massacred  or  driven  out.  Later  the 
Dutch  followed  and  the  French,  but  making  themselves 
equally  obnoxious  by  their  vices  and  crimes,  their  at- 
tempts came  to  the  same  end.  The  advent  of  the  Eng- 
lish was  delayed  until  early  in  this  century,  and  consti- 
tutes a  most  impressive  providence,  both  with  respect 
to  the  strange  way  in  which  it  was  brought  about,  and 
the  momentous  results  to  which  it  led.  No  mission  field 
can  be  named  whose  story  is  fuller  of  incidents  more 
striking  because  out  of  the  common  order.  And  the 
Gospel  message  was  first  carried  in  the  very  nick  of 
time,  for  an  all-important  preparation  had  just  been 
made.  From  time  immemorial  the  island  had  been  di- 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  241 

rided  among  divers  tribes,  between  which  desolating 
wars  were  frequent,  but  now  appeared  a  certain  Hova 
chieftain  of  unusual  ability  for  statesmanship,  and  an 
ambition  to  subdue  his  neighbors  on  every  side  that  he 
might  rise  to  supreme  power.  Dying  in  1810  he  be- 
queathed his  policy  to  his  son  Radama  I.  This  young 
ruler  was  sagacious  and  full  of  political  enterprise,  and 
knew  enough  of  European  civilization  to  understand  that 
he  could  borrow  much  that  would  be  greatly  to  his  ad- 
vantage. Now  it  had  strangely  "  happened  "  that  in 
that  same  year,  under  the  chances  attending  the  Napo- 
leonic wars,  Mauritius,  an  island  lying  some  hundreds  of 
miles  to  the  east,  was  wrested  from  France  by  Great 
Britain,  and  Sir  Robert  Farquhar  was  appointed  governor, 
a  man  thoroughly  imbued  with  horror  and  hatred  for  the 
slave  trade,  of  which  Madagascar  was  the  chief  theater 
in  that  part  of  the  world.  Nor  was  he  long  in  entering 
into  negotiations  with  the  aspiring  Malagasy  monarch, 
offering  to  supply  him  with  arms,  powder,  and  other  ob- 
jects of  desire,  on  condition  that  Radama,  on  his  part, 
would  abolish  the  traffic  in  human  flesh.  By  1820  a 
treaty  was  concluded  on  this  basis.  In  the  meantime 
Sir  Robert  had  suggested  to  British  Christians  the  advis- 
ability of  opening  a  mission  in  this  needy  and  promis- 
ing field.  As  far  back  as  1811  Vanderkemp,  with  the 
consent  of  the  London  Society,  had  planned  to  exchange 
Cape  Colony  for  this  island  as  the  scene  of  his  conse- 
crated labors,  but  had  died  just  as  he  was  about  to  set 
forth.  It  was  not  till  1818  that  two  missionaries  with 
families  landed  on  the  eastern  coast,  to  make  proclama- 
tion of  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  And  lo,  tar- 
rying too  long  in  the  fever-stricken  lowlands,  within  two 
months,  out  of  six  persons  only  one  was  left  alive,  and 


242  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

he  was  compelled  to  take  his  departure.  Rev.  David 
Jones,  the  survivor,  returned  two  years  later,  to  be  fol- 
lowed presently  by  quite  a  company  of  preachers,  teach- 
ers and  artisans,  ascended  to  the  capital,  and  was  most 
graciously  received  by  the  king.  It  soon  became  appar- 
ent that  the  royal  desire  was  wholly  for  material  benefits. 
While  without  regard  or  respect  for  the  religion  in  vogue, 
neither  did  he  care  aught,  either  then  or  at  any  later 
time,  for  Christianity,  and  was  even  afraid  of  its  en- 
croachments. So  he  cautioned  the  missionaries  not  to 
advance  too  rapidly  with  their  innovations,  forbade  bap- 
tisms and  the  religious  instruction  of  the  children.  As 
for  education  however,  they  might  push  it  to  their  heart's 
content,  while  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  and  the  like, 
could  scarcely  be  found  in  excess.  Of  religious  liberty 
he  seems  never  to  have  gained  the  least  idea. 

Of  course  the  vernacular  must  be  mastered  at  the 
outset,  and  since  the  Malagasy  forms  of  speech  had  never 
been  reduced  to  writing,  alphabet,  grammar  and  lexi- 
con were  to  be  created,  as  well  as  translations  of  the 
Scriptures  to  be  made.  At  an  early  period  schools  by 
the  score  had  been  opened  to  teach  the  common  branches, 
and  in  1826  a  printing  press  was  set  up  in  Antananarivo, 
to  the  exceeding  wonder  and  delight  of  Radama.  As 
opportunity  offered  the  Gospel  story  was  told  and  the 
teachings  of  the  New  Testament  were  imparted,  but  at 
the  end  of  the  first  decade  no  baptisms  had  been  allowed, 
and  no  public  professions  of  faith  in  Jesus  had  been 
made.  And  now  of  a  sudden,  when  an  impression, 
wide-spread,  if  not  deep,  had  been  made,  but  while  the 
great  work  of  transformation  was  still  in  feeble  infancy, 
the  king  died,  to  be  succeeded  by  one  of  his  twelve 
wives,  Ranavalona,  a  passionate,  unscrupulous,  blood- 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  243 

thirsty  and  brutal  creature,  who  feared  and  hated  the 
Europeans  and  all  their  ways,  while  she  was  full  of  super- 
stition and  clung  to  her  idols,  with  the  wizards  and  sor- 
cerers. Wars  were  almost  constant  during  her  long 
reign  of  three  and  thirty  years,  in  one  of  which  it  is  said 
that  25,000  of  the  natives  were  killed,  and  50,000  were 
captured  and  sold  into  slavery.  For  a  while  her  reac- 
tionary policy  was  not  fully  inaugurated.  For  a  few 
months  she  even  allowed  public  assemblies  for  Christian 
worship  and  baptisms,  but  then  ordered  them  to  cease. 
Later  a  great  gathering  of  the  people  was  called,  accu- 
sations were  brought  against  all  Christians,  and  every  one 
infected  with  the  foreign  faith  was  commanded  to  come 
forward  within  a  given  time  and  confess  the  fact.  Thus 
far  the  schools  were  not  interfered  with,  and  the  mis- 
sionaries were  treated  with  reasonable  consideration,  but 
in  1836  they  were  ordered  to  leave  the  island.  This 
mandate  was  not  to  be  trifled  with,  and  with  deepest  sor- 
row and  gravest  apprehensions  the  poor  converts  were 
left  to  themselves,  as  sheep  without  shepherds  but  in  the 
midst  of  ravening  wolves ;  but  fortunately  not  until  the 
whole  Bible  had  been  translated,  and  a  thousand  copies 
had  been  printed  and  distributed  to  the  most  earnest  and 
intelligent  of  the  flock. 

Days  of  darkness  now  befell,  and  were  destined  to  last 
a  full  half-century.  Not  that  there  were  no  seasons  of 
comparative  freedom  from  savage  persecution,  for  more 
than  once  the  queen  and  her  prime  minister  seemed  to 
grow  weary  of  shedding  blood,  or  their  attention  was 
drawn  to  other  occupations,  but  there  were  four  periods 
of  frenzy  and  pitiless  infliction  of  suffering,  which  varied 
in  length  from  two  to  seven  years,  and  each  one  more 
terrible  than  any  preceding.  The  saints  were  imprisoned 


244  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

by  the  wholesale  with  heavy  chains  upon  their  limbs, 
with  confiscation  of  property,  they  were  condemned  to 
lifelong  slavery,  were  burned  at  the  stake  or  scalded  to 
death,  were  buried  alive,  were  speared,  were  flung  over 
the  edge  of  lofty  precipices.  And  in  the  incidents  and 
the  outcome  of  those  woful  times  of  measureless  suffering 
are  to  be  found  some  of  the  shining  marvels  of  Christian 
history.  Seldom  if  ever  elsewhere  has  it  been  so  aston- 
ishingly true  that  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  was  the  seed 
of  the  church.  Remember  that  they  who  suffered  for 
righteousness'  sake  were  deprived  of  their  trusted  teach- 
ers and  guides,  all  Bibles  and  other  religious  books  were 
destroyed  so  far  as  they  could  be  found,  all  assemblies 
were  forbidden,  spies  were  everywhere  watching  the  sus- 
pected, they  were  scattered  everywhere  in  the  mountains, 
the  caves,  the  jungles.  And  the  phenomenon  is  two-fold. 
First,  that  during  all  those  twenty-five  dreadful  years,  so 
few  who  had  been  baptized  fell  away  and  turned  back 
through  fear  of  pain  and  death.  From  among  all  classes, 
from  high-born  and  low-born,  the  aged  and  also  the 
young,  men  and  women  alike,  faced  heroically  and  with- 
out flinching  the  severest  penalties,  and  in  all  their  ago- 
nies were  calm  and  joyful.  And,  second,  in  spite  of  all, 
even  by  means  of  the  tragical  scenes  enacted,  the  number 
of  believers  steadily  increased,  and  so  rapidly  that  the 
2,000  at  the  beginning  had  become  40,000  at  the  end. 
The  contagion  of  zeal  and  devotion  infected  the  court 
and  entered  the  very  palace  of  the  queen,  so  that  her  son, 
and  a  son  of  the  prime  minister,  took  rank  with  the  ab- 
horred Christians,  and  also  many  of  the  higher  nobility. 
It  was  not  until  1861  and  by  the  death  of  Ranavalona 
that  effectual  relief  came.  Then  her  son  reigned  in  her 
stead,  who,  though  not  a  true  disciple,  yet  held  Chris- 


MISSIONS  IN  AFRICA;  MADAGASCAR.  245 

tianity  in  honor,  and  gave  every  encouragement  to  its  ad- 
herents. The  transformation  was  sudden  and  complete 
from  the  depths  to  the  heights,  from  the  horror  of  great 
darkness  to  brightest  sunshine,  from  almost  despair  to 
hope  and  glad  fruition.  Back  flocked  the  thousands  from 
slavery,  bonds  and  long  imprisonment,  and  from  various 
places  of  concealment.  The  maimed  and  half-starved 
came  forth  as  from  the  grave.  Within  a  single  month 
eleven  places  of  worship  were  opened  in  the  capital  alone, 
and  many  more  in  the  region  surrounding.  Presently, 
too,  the  missionaries  were  back  again  and  in  larger 
numbers  than  before.  Several  memorial  churches  were 
built  upon  spots  where  martyr  blood  had  most  freely 
flowed.  This  reign  was  but  brief,  and  the  next  ruler  was 
a  queen  not  Christian,  but  wholly  favorable  to  those  who 
were.  Dying  in  1869,  she  was  followed  by  Ranavalona 
II.,  who  with  her  prime  minister,  was  baptized  not  long 
after  and  received  into  the  church.  The  burning  of  the 
nation's  idols  followed  in  due  season,  and  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  fullest  religious  liberty.  Christianity,  from 
being  hated  and  proscribed,  had  now  become  popular  and 
fashionable,  and  multitudes  of  all  classes  and  conditions 
flocked  to  the  missionaries  to  be  baptized.  The  only 
trouble  was  to  sift  the  candidates,  and  repress  those  who 
were  unfit  to  be  received  to  fellowship.  In  1868  there 
were  20,000  who  professed  to  have  forsaken  their  idols, 
the  next  year  the  number  had  risen  to  163,000,  and  the 
year  after  to  231,000.  In  spite  of  the  utmost  of  caution 
and  care  many  were  admitted  to  the  churches  who  have 
since  proved  their  utter  lack  of  vital  godliness,  and  even 
to  this  day  the  harm  then  done  is  felt  far  and  wide  among 
the  churches. 
In  1866  the  Norwegian  Lutherans  entered  Madagascar 


246  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

and  opened  a  mission,  and  the  next  year  came  also  the 
English  Friends,  and  both  not  to  divide  and  proselyte, 
but  to  aid  and  co-operate  in  gathering  in  the  abundant 
harvest.  The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel 
began  work  about  the  same  time.  In  1895  such  figures 
as  these  stood  for  the  situation  :  Including  some  50,000 
Roman  Catholics,  the  native  Christians  numbered  nearly 
400,000,  the  Protestant  churches  held  about  75,000 
communicants,  while  the  London  Society  alone  had  over 
1,400  ordained  native  pastors  and  125,000  pupils  in  its 
schools. 

But  now,  of  a  sudden,  a  catastrophe  befel.  The 
French  Republic  had  long  looked  upon  the  island  with 
covetous  eyes,  and  in  1896  set  out  in  earnest  to  reduce  it 
to  the  estate  of  a  colony.  A  conquering  army  pene- 
trated to  the  capital,  dethroned  the  queen  and  banished 
her  from  the  realm.  With  the  soldiers  came  in  a  horde 
of  Jesuits  fully  bent  upon  capturing  all  the  Christians 
for  the  Pope.  For  two  or  three  years  the  victors  held 
the  English  missionaries  in  greatest  suspicion  and  dis- 
like, treating  them  with  great  rudeness,  as  well  as  seizing 
school  houses,  churches  and  other  property,  even  putting 
the  Jesuits  in  possession  of  no  inconsiderable  portion.  In 
order  to  meet  this  dire  emergency,  the  Paris  Evangelical 
Society  was  invited  to  send  out  its  missionaries  and  take 
over  a  large  part  of  the  school  work.  But  more  recently 
the  attitude  of  the  civil  rulers  has  entirely  changed.  The 
London  Society  has  fairly  compelled  confidence,  respect, 
and  even  high  esteem.  The  five  societies  together  are 
now  represented  by  85  missionaries,  470  ordained  natives 
and  more  than  4,000  other  native  helpers,  about  70,000 
communicants,  adherents  to  the  number  of  some  130,- 
ooo,  and  not  far  from  150,000  pupils  in  the  schools. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA. 

"  THE  Lord  reigneth,  let  the  earth  rejoice ;  let  the  mul- 
titude of  isles  be  glad  thereof. "  "  And  the  isles  shall  wait 
for  his  law."  If  we  omit  from  the  list  such  insular  tracts 
as  lie  within  the  pale  of  Christendom,  with  New  Zealand 
and  its  only  forty  thousand  aborigines,  and  Tasmania 
whose  native  races  have  utterly  disappeared  ;  and  further 
omit  a  half-dozen  of  the  largest  which  remain  ;  and  be- 
sides reserve  Japan  for  a  separate  treatment,  the  thirty 
thousand  islands,  more  or  less,  scattered  over  the  earth's 
surface,  constitute  but  an  insignificant  fraction  of  the 
land  area.  Nor  taken  altogether,  great  and  small,  do 
they  compare  for  size  with  the  least  of  the  continents. 
And  again,  if  we  leave  out  of  the  account  a  few  which 
are  most  thickly  inhabited,  the  aggregate  population  of 
those  remaining  is  as  nothing  to  the  hordes  and  masses 
which  crowd  such  countries  as  India  and  China.  The 
number  is  not  much  greater  than  that  found  in  the  Turk- 
ish Empire,  or  in  Italy,  or  Spain.  This  table  will  pre- 
sent these  two  facts  impressively  to  the  eye. 

AREA.  POPULATION. 

New  Guinea,  310,000  660,000 

Borneo,  285,000  2,000,000 

Madagascar,  230,000  3,500,000 

Sumatra,  160,000  2,718,000 

The  Philippines  ( 1400)  t  114,300  8,000,000 

Celebes,  70,000  2,100,000 

Java,  50,800  25,900,000 

West  Indies  ( looo),  92,270  5,500,000 

»47 


248  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

AREA.       POPULATION. 

Cuba.,  41,650  1,632,000 

Haiti,  28,250  1,500,000 

Ceylon,  25,364  3,578,000 

New  Caledonia,  7,75°  63,000 

Fiji  Group  (200),  7»74O  125,400 

Hawaiian  Islands,  6,640  154,000 

New  Hebrides  (30),  5»3oo  75,000 

Porto  Rico,  3,55°  953,000 

Trinidad,  I»75O  200,000 

Caroline  Islands,  560  35,000 

Society  Islands,  375  23,000 

Gilbert  Islands,  170  36,800 

And  yet,  the  historic  importance  of  the  islands  is  ex- 
ceeding great,  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  relative 
superficies,  or  to  the  number  of  their  inhabitants.  Take, 
for  example,  the  scores  which  dot  the  surface  of  the 
^Egean,  or  Sicily,  or  Malta,  or  England.  Islands  have 
played  from  the  very  first  a  most  prominent  part  in  the 
spread  of  the  Gospel.  The  fact  is  prophetic  that  the 
earliest  missionary  tour  outside  of  Asia  was  directed  to 
Cyprus.  For  long  centuries  Ireland  was  emphatically 
the  "  Isle  of  Saints,"  and  with  lona,  a  mere  speck  of  soil 
and  rock  off  the  Scottish  coast,  supplied  a  large  part  of 
the  spiritual  force  which  wrought  the  conversion  of  Eu- 
rope. For  centuries  also  Rhodes  and  Malta  stood  as  im- 
pregnable bulwarks  against  the  assaults  of  the  Saracens. 
And  no  continent  to-day  can  match  Great  Britain,  as  a 
civilizing  and  Christianizing  power  throughout  the  whole 
world.  Moreover,  the  first  Moravian  missionary  under- 
taking had  the  evangelization  of  the  West  Indies  as  its 
object,  and  of  Greenland  as  the  next.  For  years  Carey 
planned  to  devote  himself  to  the  enlargement  of  the 
kingdom  in  the  South  Seas,  a  region  selected  a  little 
later  by  the  London  Society  for  the  beginning  of  its 
work.  The  American  Board  established  its  second  mis- 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA.  349 

sion  in  Ceylon,  and  soon  after  despatched  a  company  to 
bear  the  message  of  salvation  to  the  Sandwich  Islands. 
Nor  is  it  to  be  forgotten,  that  nowhere  else  have  the  con- 
quests of  the  cross  been  so  astonishing  or  so  complete. 
The  import  of  this  suggestion  is  sufficiently  set  forth  by 
a  mere  reference  to  the  group  just  named,  or  to  Fiji, 
or  Tahiti,  or  Madagascar,  or  Japan  that  marvel  among 
missions  during  the  last  two  decades.  And  finally,  if  we 
are  in  search  of  great  names  intimately  connected  with 
the  introduction  of  the  Gospel  into  heathen  lands,  names 
which  stand  for  eminent  genius,  energy  and  consecrated 
zeal,  we  can  be  easily  content  with  such  as  Williams  and 
Marsden,  Selwyn  and  Patteson,  and  those  who  in  Fiji 
and  Hawaii  bore  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day. 

Of  the  multitude  of  the  earth's  islands  by  far  the 
greater  portion  is  found  in  the  southern  Pacific,  the 
South  Seas  of  a  century  since.  And  they  lie  on  both 
sides  of  the  equator,  between  twenty  degrees  north 
latitude  and  twenty  south,  and  extend  over  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  degrees  of  longitude,  stretching  from 
southeastern  Asia  far  towards  distant  South  America. 
The  expanse  covered  is  something  like  two  thousand 
miles  by  eight  thousand,  and  within  these  roomy 
limits,  the  greatest  of  oceans  is  a  vast  archipelago,  a 
very  "  milky  way  of  islets."  A  hundred  years  ago  this 
immense  island  world  had  but  just  been  revealed  to  the 
knowledge  of  civilized  men.  Captain  Cook  more  than 
any  other  was  the  honored  discoverer  (1768-79),  and  a 
little  later  many  eyes  were  turned  thither  by  reading  of 
Captain  Bligh  and  the  mutiny  of  the  ship  Bounty.  It 
was  a  famous  day,  an  occasion  big  with  meaning  for  the 
world's  redemption,  when  the  Duff,  in  1796,  sent  forth 
by  the  London  Society  which  had  come  into  existence 


250  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

only  a  few  months  before,  with  thirty  missionaries  on 
board  set  sail  from  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  bound  for 
the  Society  Islands,  then  thought  to  be  an  earthly 
paradise  inhabited  by  simple,  docile,  innocent  and  most 
lovable  children  of  nature.  The  tide  of  enthusiasm  ran 
high,  and  great  things  for  the  Gospel  were  expected 
soon  and  easily  to  be  brought  to  pass.  But  bitter  dis- 
appointment, and  sorrow,  and  pain  were  in  store,  for  the 
better  part  of  two  decades  the  two  words,  failure  and 
waste,  seemed  to  sum  up  the  results,  though  as  we  now 
can  plainly  discern,  the  results  of  that  undertaking, 
direct  and  indirect,  near  and  more  remote,  were  so 
various  and  so  great,  that  the  ship  which  bore  the 
pioneers  to  their  destination  may  fittingly  be  classed 
with  the  Mayflower,  and  even  with  the  three  caravels 
which  some  three  hundred  years  before  put  forth  west- 
ward from  Palos.  Of  the  thirty  missionaries  only  four 
were  clergymen,  for  men  of  that  class  who  were  both 
fit  and  willing  to  exchange  Christian  for  pagan  lands, 
were  scarcely  to  be  found,  while  six  women  and  three 
children  were  added  to  the  company.  Unlearned 
artisans  were  in  a  large  majority,  blacksmiths,  carpen- 
ters, shoemakers,  weavers,  butchers,  etc.  In  seven 
months  Tahiti  was  reached,  eighteen  were  landed, 
while  the  rest  were  carried  on  to  other  groups.  Like  all 
the  Polynesians,  the  natives  were  in  demeanor  gentle 
and  genial,  were  social  and  hospitable ;  they  received 
the  white  strangers  with  great  demonstrations  of  joy  and 
kind  feeling,  supplied  them  with  food  in  abundance, 
and  showered  upon  them  favors  of  all  sorts,  while  King 
Pomare  made  a  liberal  grant  of  land,  and  bestowed  the 
gift  of  a  large  building.  And  so,  what  could  be  more 
delightful,  or  fuller  of  encouragement  ?  But  all  these 


THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  SEA.  9$l 

appearances  proved  most  deceitful.  With  two  ship- 
wrecked Swedes  found  upon  the  island  to  help  as  in- 
terpreters, religious  services  were  held  almost  at  once, 
the  study  of  the  language  was  commenced  and  explora- 
tions were  made  in  all  directions,  extending  to  other 
islands  of  the  group.  For  some  months  all  things  went 
well,  though  signs  quickly  appeared  that  this  was  not 
Arcadia,  and  that  these  were  none  other  than  down- 
right savages  of  the  vilest  and  most  villainous  sort. 
Depravity  in  exceedingly  revolting  shapes  thrust  itself 
upon  their  notice,  indecency  was  shocking  for  both 
amount  and  degree,  some  were  cannibals,  infanticide 
was  common,  and  chastity  was  unknown.  The  property 
of  the  missionaries  was  coveted,  especially  their  axes, 
knives,  and  other  tools,  and  a  plot  was  formed  to  rob 
them  of  all  they  possessed.  Then  a  little  later,  perhaps 
in  some  considerable  measure  through  their  own  un- 
wisdom and  lack  of  tact,  three  were  assaulted  and 
barely  escaped  being  thrown  into  the  sea.  As  a  result, 
so  much  were  they  cast  down,  and  so  full  of  fear,  that 
eleven  took  advantage  of  the  presence  of  a  vessel  to  de- 
part from  this  land  of  horrors.  Of  the  seven  who  re- 
mained, one  presently  joined  himself  to  a  native 
woman  and  not  long  after  was  found  dead,  while  an- 
other fell  into  gross  immorality  and  renounced  Chris- 
tianity. The  little  remnant,  however,  toiled  faithfully 
on,  with  frequent  wars  to  add  to  their  woes.  In  1801  a 
reinforcement  of  thirteen  was  made  to  the  mission,  and 
several  who  had  abandoned  the  work  returned.  Schools 
were  opened  in  various  places,  the  language  was  re- 
duced to  writing  and  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures  was 
pushed  forward.  Even  yet,  and  in  spite  of  ineir  best 
endeavors,  they  often  found  themselves  the  objects  of 


252  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

ridicule  and  evil  treatment,  thieving  continued,  and 
their  lives  were  finally  in  such  danger  that  the  entire 
company  turned  their  backs  upon  the  island.  The 
king,  however,  hearing  of  this,  was  sorry  and  sent  an 
urgent  message  urging  them  to  return,  nor  was  it  long 
before  he  began  to  display  manifestations  of  a  radical 
spiritual  change  in  progress.  He  had  learned  to  read 
and  write,  and  now  made  many  inquiries  concerning 
God  and  the  way  of  life,  as  well  as  declared  plainly  by 
his  conduct  that  he  held  idols  in  contempt.  Next, 
several  of  the  principal  chiefs  became  interested  in 
things  religious,  and  requests  for  baptism  began  to  be 
made.  Then  one  day  a  native  was  overheard  in  the 
forest  pouring  out  his  soul  in  prayer.  Upon  Eimeo  and 
Huahine,  as  well  as  Tahiti,  such  tokens  of  good  things 
at  hand  steadily  increased.  In  1813  upwards  of  fifty 
expressed  a  readiness  to  cast  away  their  false  gods,  and 
then  began  a  destruction  of  all  emblems  of  idolatry.  In 
1817  a  printing  press  was  set  up  and  produced  a  tre- 
mendous impression  far  and  wide.  In  1819  Pomare 
built  a  chapel  712  feet  by  54,  and  soon  after  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  multitude  was  baptized,  the  first  of 
all  the  pagans  in  the  South  Seas.  The  number  of  con- 
verts rapidly  rose  to  hundreds  and  thousands,  idols 
were  burned  by  the  wholesale,  nor  was  it  long  before 
almost  the  entire  population  was  under  careful  religious 
instruction  and  had  become  Christian  at  least  in  name. 
But  this  day  of  joy  dawned  not  until  after  two  and 
twenty  years  of  tearful  seed-sowing  and  tilling  of  the 
soil.  At  the  end  of  twelve  years  the  field  still  appeared 
to  be  hopelessly  barren  and  desert ;  when  fifteen  years 
had  passed  no  fruit  had  been  gathered,  but  now  a  great 
harvest  was  ripe  and  a  blissful  period  of  reaping  ensued. 


THE  ISLANDS  OP  THE  SEA.  853 

In  1835  a  complete  translation  of  the  Scriptures  was 
printed. 

The  full  significance  of  the  evangelization  of  the  So- 
ciety Islands  does  not  appear  until  account  is  taken  of 
the  effects  of  this  notable  religious  overturning  which 
were  felt  throughout  Polynesia.  Starting  in  Tahiti,  the 
tide  of  spiritual  blessing  and  renovation  spread  in  all 
directions,  the  divine  impulse  was  imparted  to  other 
groups,  and  scores  of  islands  were  lifted  into  a  new  and 
heavenly  life.  Having  had  joyful  experience  of  pardon 
and  cleansing  and  peace  with  God  through  Jesus  Christ, 
the  happy  converts  were  wisely  taught  at  once  to  impart 
to  others  of  the  unspeakable  gift.  The  Hervey  Group 
was  among  the  earliest  recipients  of  the  message  of  sal- 
vation, consisting  of  six  islands,  and  lying  some  six 
hundred  miles  to  the  west.  In  this  and  various  similar 
undertakings,  John  Williams,  the  future  martyr  of  Er- 
romanga,  played  a  prominent  part,  was  perhaps  the 
chief  personal  force.  He  had  been  sent  to  the  South 
Seas  in  1816,  had  made  his  headquarters  upon  Raiatea, 
one  of  the  largest  islands  in  the  Society  Group,  but  ere 
long  his  faith,  and  desire,  and  endeavor,  had  become 
coextensive  with  the  bounds  of  the  Pacific,  and  he 
began  to  push  out  in  all  directions.  In  1821  two  Chris- 
tian natives  were  ordained  as  teachers  and  set  apart  for 
service  in  the  regions  beyond.  Mr.  Williams  sailed 
with  these  for  Aitutaki,  where  they  were  kindly  received 
with  promise  of  protection.  However,  persecution  be- 
fell at  first,  and  great  discouragement,  though  after  a 
year  had  passed  a  general  movement  against  the  worship 
of  idols  set  in.  Hearing  of  this,  the  brethren  in  Tahiti 
determined  to  enlarge  the  force,  and  despatched  two 
missionaries  and  six  native  teachers  to  occupy  the  other 


254  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

islands.  Arriving  at  Aitutaki  they  found  the  Sabbath 
carefully  kept,  all  the  people  attendants  upon  the  public 
services,  and  family  prayer  generally  instituted.  But  as 
yet  Rarotonga  remained  undiscovered,  and  so  Mr. 
Williams  sailed  in  search  of  it.  Success  at  length 
rewarding  his  attempt,  two  teachers  were  landed  upon 
its  shores  to  tell  the  story  of  a  Saviour's  love  to  the 
ignorant  and  vile.  Within  two  years  as  much  was 
accomplished  as  had  required  the  labor  of  fifteen  years 
in  Tahiti.  In  later  times  this  great  leader  and  apostle 
of  the  Gospel  declared  concerning  the  Rarotongans : 
"  When  I  found  them  in  1823  they  were  ignorant  of  the 
nature  of  Christian  worship ;  and  when  I  left  them  in 
1834  I  am  not  aware  that  there  was  a  house  in  the  island 
where  family  prayer  was  not  observed  every  morning 
and  evening."  Here  it  was  also  that  a  training  insti- 
tution was  established  where  teachers  and  pastors  were 
fitted  for  lives  of  usefulness. 

In  the  same  year,  1821,  Christianity  was  introduced 
into  the  Austral  Islands,  situated  about  the  same  dis- 
tance to  the  south,  and  on  this  wise.  A  young  chief 
had  left  home  while  a  destructive  pestilence  was  raging, 
and  had  finally  drifted  to  Tahiti.  Here  he  learned  to 
his  astonishment  that  idolatry  had  been  everywhere 
overthrown,  and  the  worship  of  the  unseen  God  set  up 
in  its  place.  He  sought  out  the  missionaries  and  at- 
tended the  services,  was  convinced  of  the  truth,  desired 
to  take  back  to  his  friends  the  good  things  he  saw  and 
heard,  and  asked  for  teachers.  Two  native  deacons 
volunteered  to  go,  and  with  them  some  books  were  sent, 
including  a  few  copies  of  the  New  Testament.  Other 
Tahrtan  toilers  were  added  later  for  the  other  islands  of 
the  group.  A  general  stir  resulted,  attended  with  not  a 


THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  SEA.  «55 

little  debate  and  some  opposition,  but  within  less  than 
half  a  decade,  with  only  an  occasional  visit  from  the 
missionaries — that  is,  almost  wholly  by  the  efforts  of 
those  who  themselves  had  but  recently  emerged  from  the 
follies,  and  sins,  and  abominations,  of  heathenism — the 
institutions  of  the  Gospel  were  well  planted,  and  mul- 
titudes were  redeemed. 

Samoa,  or  the  Navigator's  Group,  was  the  next  to  be 
entered  from  the  Society  Islands  by  those  who  carried 
the  bread  and  the  water  of  life.  And  here  too,  John 
Williams  was  the  chief  instrument.  In  this  case  not  less 
than  two  thousand  miles  of  ocean  space  lying  to  the 
westward  must  be  sailed  over.  In  those  days  commerce 
and  travel  were  but  slight  in  the  South  Seas.  In  order 
to  make  the  long  passage  it  became  necessary  to  con- 
struct a  ship  sufficiently  large,  and  this  in  the  well-nigh 
utter  absence  of  all  facilities  for  the  performance  of  the 
task,  with  the  added  serious  lack  of  all  experience  in 
such  undertakings.  But  unappalled,  he  set  resolutely 
about  the  task,  and  tugged  away  at  the  seemingly  im- 
possible, until  finally  the  "Messenger  of  Peace,"  sixty 
feet  in  length,  and  of  seventy-five  tons  burden,  was 
launched  and  ready  for  use,  as  nondescript  a  craft  as 
ever  plowed  the  waves.  It  was  in  1830  that  this  mis- 
sionary ship-builder  and  navigator  set  sail  for  Samoa, 
with  seven  teachers,  bent  on  errands  of  salvation.  For 
two  years  the  latter  were  left  to  themselves,  to  till  the 
soil  and  plant  the  seed  of  the  kingdom  in  the  thirteen 
islands  with  some  thirty-five  thousand  inhabitants. 
Their  labors  were  richly  blessed  from  on  high,  so  that 
by  the  end  of  that  period  consciences  had  been  quick- 
ened, and  the  foundations  of  idolatry  had  been  shaken. 
In  one  locality  fifty  were  ready  to  come  out  on  the 


2$6  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

Lord's  side.  In  1835  a  company  of  missionaries  with 
their  wives  made  their  advent  to  aid  in  evangelizing 
and  instructing  the  willing-hearted,  and  at  the  close  of 
a  decade  the  outward  symbols  of  paganism  had  disap- 
peared, and  Christianity  was  triumphant.  Where  before 
rapine  and  violence  were  universal,  and  as  good  as  con- 
stant, with  the  accompaniment  of  murder,  and  canni- 
balism, and  all  manner  of  horrors,  were  now  found 
many  godly  lives,  happy  homes,  large  congregations  of 
devout  worshippers,  with  public  peace  and  the  spirit  of 
brotherly  love. 

All  the  wonders  thus  far  recorded  were  wrought,  by  di- 
vine grace,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  London 
Society,  which  was  the  first  to  enter  this  broad  and  deso- 
late field.  But  this  organization  was  not  left  alone  for 
many  years  to  struggle  with  the  mighty  powers  of  dark- 
ness, with  none  to  sympathize  and  co-operate.  For  the 
English  Wesleyan  Church  had  begun  to  turn  with  burn- 
ing desire  and  determined  zeal  towards  the  same  perish- 
ing millions  in  the  South  Pacific.  The  Friendly  Islands, 
called  also  from  the  principal  island  the  Tonga  Group, 
fifteen  in  number,  and  situated  to  the  southwest  of 
Samoa  at  a  distance  of  three  or  four  hundred  miles,  were 
selected  as  the  place  of  beginning.  The  pioneer  heralds 
of  the  cross  were  transported  thither  in  1822,  that  is, 
when  after  the  long  night  of  almost  toil  in  Tahiti  the 
morning  had  dawned,  and  just  after  the  light  had  begun 
to  break  upon  the  Hervey,  and  the  Austral  groups.  The 
Duff,  after  leaving  a  company  of  missionaries  in  the 
Society  Islands,  had  taken  ten  others  to  Tongabatu. 
Though  their  reception  was  sufficiently  pleasant,  not 
many  months  elapsed  before  in  a  war  which  broke  out 
among  the  savage  tribes  they  were  robbed  of  everything 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA.  257 

they  possessed,  three  were  murdered,  and  the  survivors 
were  reduced  to  utter  destitution.  After  three  years  of 
suffering,  with  no  hope  of  relief  from  England,  they 
abandoned  the  mission.  The  first  Wesleyan  who  landed 
on  the  same  island  fared  no  better,  and  was  treated  with 
such  rudeness  that  he,  too,  took  his  departure.  In  1826 
two  more  were  sent  to  this  desert  field,  with  others  to 
follow  later,  and  in  spite  of  provoking  and  disheartening 
opposition,  and  seemingly  with  only  their  labor  for  their 
pains,  set  about  the  construction  of  buildings  and  the 
study  of  the  language,  meanwhile  watching  for  oppor- 
tunities to  find  access  to  darkened  minds  and  obdurate 
hearts.  Besides,  certain  teachers  from  Tahiti  had  been 
at  work  with  better  results,  having  even  gathered  quite  a 
number  of  disciples.  By  1830,  in  not  a  few,  faith  in 
idols  had  been  shaken.  In  one  of  the  islands  a  promi- 
nent chief  hung  up  by  the  neck  five  famous  gods  of  wood 
and  stone  that  the  people  might  see  that  they  were  dead, 
while  in  another  eighteen  temples  were  burned  with  all 
their  images.  After  this  turning  to  the  Lord,  churches 
were  organized,  schools  were  opened,  and  in  all  the  is- 
lands hereabouts  the  sway  of  the  Gospel  was  inaugu- 
rated. In  1833  king  George  of  Tonga  became  supreme 
ruler  throughout  the  group,  while  the  year  following  a 
remarkable  visitation  of  the  Spirit  was  vouchsafed  re- 
sulting in  thousands  of  genuine  conversions,  the  king 
being  among  the  number.  This  truly  eminent  chieftain 
has  only  recently  died,  and,  for  the  most  part,  through 
a  long  career  proved  himself  a  humble  and  faithful  ser- 
vant of  Christ,  and  a  tower  of  strength  to  truth  and 
righteousness. 

And  it  was  from  Tonga,  and  by  the  Wesleyans,  that 
the  name  and  spirit  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  were  carried 


A  HUNDRED    YEARS   OF    MISSIONS. 

to  Fiji,  then  a  spot  as  vile,  and  as  full  of  demoniac  hor- 
rors, as  the  earth's  surface  contained.  For  years  the 
name  had  been  a  synonym  for  the  extreme  of  the  beastly 
and  the  ferocious.  Lust  ran  riot  unchecked,  and  every 
vilest  passion,  the  sick  and  aged  were  killed  without 
pity,  widows  must  needs  die  with  their  husbands,  and 
slaves  were  slain  to  accompany  their  masters  to  the 
world  of  shades.  But  more  than  all,  cannibalism  was 
in  the  forefront  among  barbarous  practices.  It  had  be- 
come a  part  of  religion,  the  matter  of  every  day,  to 
kill,  and  roast  in  ovens,  and  devour  captives  taken  in 
war,  the  shipwrecked,  etc.,  and  for  wanton  destruction 
of  human  life  on  slightest  occasion  the  demands  were 
numberless.  Scores  at  a  time  would  be  slain,  far  more 
than  it  was  possible  to  eat,  so  that  only  the  arms  and 
legs  of  the  victims  were  cooked,  while  the  trunks  were 
thrown  away.  And  it  was  to  this  veritable  pandemo- 
nium, to  such  hell-hounds  as  these,  and  knowing  full  well 
tke  import  of  the  undertaking,  that  in  the  year  of  grace 
1835,  inspired  by  the  great  revival  in  Tonga,  Cross  and 
Cargill,  with  their  wives  and  a  few  native  Christians, 
stepped  courageously  on  shore  in  Lakemba  after  a  voyage 
of  about  two  hundred  miles  to  the  westward.  Of  the  nearly 
two  hundred  islands  something  like  eighty  are  inhabited. 
A  volume  would  be  required  to  tell  what  was  endured 
by  these  and  others  equally  heroic  who  were  added  to 
their  number.  Seldom  if  ever  has  it  fallen  to  the  lot  of 
the  servants  of  the  Most  High  to  be  placed  in  the  midst 
of  surroundings  at  once  so  full  of  peril,  and  so  loath- 
some. But  they  held  calmly  on  without  flinching, 
teaching,  preaching,  playing  the  part  of  peace-makers, 
in  their  own  lives  showing  the  more  excellent  way. 
Schools,  a  printing  press,  and  various  appliances  of 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA.  259 

civilization,  were  called  to  their  aid.  After  about  ten 
years  of  prayers  and  tears  and  toils,  sowing  beside  all 
waters,  the  Spirit  of  God  with  wonderful  renewing 
power  was  poured  out  upon  this  scene  of  darkness  and 
depravity.  The  phenomena  attending  the  revival  were 
in  keeping  with  the  savage  natures  wrought  upon,  there 
was  sore  wrestling,  and  groaning,  and  crying  out,  but 
the  devil  of  beastliness  was  effectually  expelled.  Not 
that  all,  or  many,  were  lifted  at  once  to  the  heights  of 
saintliness,  but  that  an  extensive,  an  almost  general  be- 
ginning ensued  of  turning  away  in  all  sincerity  from  a 
multitude  of  evil  things,  and  towards  things  which  are 
pure,  and  honest,  and  lovely,  and  of  good  report.  From 
that  day  to  this,  perhaps  nowhere  else  in  Christendom 
can  communities  be  found  in  which  so  large  a  propor- 
tion are  able  to  read,  are  found  regularly  in  attendance 
upon  public  worship,  and  faithful  in  maintaining  family 
prayer,  and  according  to  their  knowledge  and  ability 
bringing  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance.  Darwin's  em- 
phatic words  find  nowhere  better  proof  and  commentary 
than  in  Fiji :  "  The  march  of  improvement  consequent 
upon  the  introduction  of  Christianity  throughout  the 
South  Seas  probably  stands  by  itself  in  the  records  of 
history.  Within  twenty  years,  human  sacrifices,  the 
power  of  an  idolatrous  priesthood,  profligacy  unparal- 
leled in  any  other  part  of  the  world,  infanticide  and 
bloody  wars  not  sparing  women  and  children,  all  these 
have  been  abolished,  and  dishonesty,  intemperance  and 
licentiousness  have  been  greatly  reduced." 

The  scene  changes  once  more,  and  this  time  to  the 
north  Pacific,  as  well  as  to  the  operations  of  a  third  so- 
ciety, whose  work  for  the  welfare  of  the  islands  of  the 
sea  began  early,  was  carried  on  with  vigor  and  sound 


a6o  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

discretion,  and  was  crowned  with  distinguished  success. 
Of  course  the  reference  is  to  the  American  Board,  and 
its  mission  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  This  group,  con- 
taining ten  islands,  is  situated  about  twenty  degrees  north 
of  the  equator,  twenty-four  hundred  miles  north  of  Ta- 
hiti, twenty-one  hundred  miles  southwest  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, thirty-four  hundred  and  forty  miles  from  Yoko- 
hama, and  forty-nine  hundred  from  Hong  Kong.  To 
Captain  Cook  belongs  the  honor  of  discovery,  and  in 
Kealakakua  he  met  his  tragic  fate  in  1779.  The  story 
has  been  told  many  times  of  Obookiah,  found  one  day 
in  1809  sitting  upon  the  steps  of  one  of  the  buildings  of 
Yale  College,  and  weeping  because  he  longed  to  gain  an 
education  and  knew  not  how  it  could  be  secured.  And 
how  he  said  later:  "The  people  of  Hawaii  are  very 
bad  ;  they  pray  to  gods  made  of  wood.  I  want  to  learn 
to  read  the  Bible,  and  go  back  there  and  tell  them  to 
pray  to  God  up  in  heaven."  This  youth  was  befriended 
by  Samuel  J.  Mills ;  next  a  mission  school  was  opened  at 
Cornwall,  Conn.,  in  which  he  and  certain  others  could 
be  fitted  to  labor  for  the  evangelization  of  their  country- 
men, and  at  length,  in  1819,  the  brig  Thaddeus  with 
nineteen  missionaries  was  ready  to  sail.  And  stranger 
still  was  the  varied  providential  preparation  made  for 
this  eventful  undertaking.  First,  after  a  period  of  bloody 
wars,  the  islands  had  all  been  brought  under  one  govern- 
ment by  King  Kamehameha.  Next,  this  same  able  ruler 
had  become  restive  under  the  tyranny  of  the  priesthood 
and  the  bondage  of  the  tabu.  In  1793  he  had  asked 
Vancouver  to  see  that  religious  teachers  were  sent  to  him 
from  England.  And  finally,  the  news  had  reached 
Hawaii  of  the  complete  overthrow  of  idolatry  in  the  So- 
ciety Islands,  as  well  as  various  letters  from  Obookiah 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA.  a6l 

and  others  in  America  telling  of  the  Christian  faith.  So 
that  when  Kamehameha  died,  while  the  messengers  of 
peace  were  on  their  way,  an  open  revolt  against  idolatry 
ensued.  After  a  voyage  of  five  months,  when  the  brig 
cast  anchor  the  astounding  intelligence  was  imparted  that 
no  small  portion  of  the  work  they  had  come  to  perform 
was  already  accomplished,  for  they  were  to  labor  among 
a  people  without  a  religion.  After  a  little  hesitation, 
Thurston,  Bingham  and  the  rest  were  received  with  kind- 
ness, and  were  soon  at  work.  The  chief  opposition  orig- 
inated with  sailors  and  other  foreigners,  to  whom  the 
presence  of  earnest  Christian  men  and  women  was  not  in 
the  least  agreeable.  The  good  seed  sown  began  almost 
at  once  to  spring  up.  The  king  and  queen,  and  divers 
influential  chiefs,  were  usually  in  attendance  at  public 
worship,  with  large  numbers  of  their  followers.  At  the 
end  of  eight  years  twelve  thousand  hearers  of  the  word 
could  be  counted,  and  twenty-seven  thousand  pupils  in 
the  schools.  The  New  Testament  was  presently  in  cir- 
culation in  the  vernacular,  and  was  read  with  eagerness, 
and  among  high  and  low  deep  conviction  of  sin  began  to 
appear,  with  hundreds  of  sound  conversions  to  righteous- 
ness. In  1836  a  large  reinforcement  of  laborers  was  re- 
ceived and  distributed  among  the  islands,  and  two  years 
later  the  heavens  were  opened  for  the  outpouring  of  such 
a  spiritual  blessing  as  has  seldom  been  bestowed  upon 
any  people.  For  six  years  together  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  was  displayed,  with  Hilo,  and  the  ministry  of 
Titus  Coan,  as  the  most  notable  scene  of  the  wonders 
wrought.  Among  the  results  twenty-seven  thousand 
were  added  to  the  churches,  a  radical  and  general  change 
came  to  social  customs,  and  the  government  became 
Christian  to  an  extent  seldom  elsewhere  seen.  By  1863 


26a  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

the  American  Board  deemed  the  work  of  founding  and 
building  for  the  kingdom  so  thoroughly  accomplished  as 
to  justify  its  withdrawal  from  the  management  of  reli- 
gious affairs,  and  to  demand  that  upon  the  native  churches 
should  be  put  the  entire  burden  of  maintaining  and  push- 
ing forward  the  King's  business. 

And  furthermore,  Hawaii,  like  Tahiti  and  Tonga,  was 
called  to  impart  of  what  it  had  received,  and  to  bear  the 
Gospel  to  other  groups  of  Pacific  islands.  In  1850  a 
missionary  society  was  formed  looking  to  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  Micronesia,  with  its  thousands  of  islands,  and  ly- 
ing far  to  the  south  and  west.  In  1852  the  Board  des- 
patched several  missionaries  to  open  work  in  the  Caroline 
and  the  Gilbert  groups.  Calling  at  Honolulu,  seven  na- 
tive Christians  were  found  ready  to  accompany  them, 
though  only  two  with  their  wives  went  at  that  time.  This 
was  only  thirty-three  years  from  the  date  of  the  sailing  of 
the  brig  Thaddeus  from  Boston  harbor,  and  behold,  a 
nation  which  then  had  never  heard  the  Gospel,  is  now 
ready  and  eager  to  proclaim  to  the  perishing  in  the  deso- 
late regions  beyond  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ. 
Kusaie  and  Ponape  were  chosen  as  centers  of  influence, 
though  various  other  islands  were  occupied  then  or  later, 
and  in  1857  a  beginning  was  made  in  the  Marshall  Group 
also.  Here,  too,  Americans  and  Hawaiians  were  asso- 
ciated in  effecting  the  overthrow  of  idolatry,  the  banish- 
ing of  gross  superstitions  by  the  diffusion  of  the  truth, 
and  the  kindling  of  holy  desires.  But  the  same  year  a 
mission,  purely  Hawaiian  in  its  management  and  mem- 
bers, was  founded  in  the  remote  Marquesas  Islands.  An 
•  urgent  request  for  teachers  had  been  brought  in  person 
by  one  of  the  prominent  chiefs  who  had  heard  of  the 
Gospel  and  its  blessings  from  the  lips  of  a  young  Kanaka 


THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  SEA.  263 

trained  in  one  of  the  mission  schools,  then  left  sick  in 
the  Marquesas,  and  finally  marrying  a  daughter  of  the 
chief.  In  response  to  this  Macedonian  cry  two  native 
pastors  were  sent  out  and  an  English  mechanic.  These 
four  missions  have  passed  through  their  full  share  of  vi- 
cissitudes, have  suffered  discouragement  and  serious  dis- 
aster, not  from  outbreaks  of  savagery,  or  from  the  hard- 
ness of  the  heathen  heart,  but  from  the  officious  inter- 
meddling of  European  governments  and  the  machinations 
of  Roman  Catholic  priests.  But  in  spite  of  all,  the 
institutions  of  the  Gospel  have  been  reared,  and  thou- 
sands have  been  redeemed  from  sin  and  raised  to  a  new 
life. 

The  story  of  how  Christ  was  preached  to  the  perishing 
in  New  Zealand  is  next  in  order.  Two  islands,  the  North 
and  South,  are  included  under  this  name,  and  they  lie 
some  two  thousand  miles  to  the  southeast  of  Australia. 
An  area  of  100,000  square  miles  is  divided  nearly  equally 
between  them.  This  is  a  land  of  fountains  and  streams 
and  charming  lakes  ;  manifold  attractions  abound,  and 
the  climate  is  delightful.  The  inhabitants  when  first  vis- 
ited were  found  intelligent,  brave,  and  not  without  vari- 
ous other  attractive  traits,  but  taken  all  in  all,  were  well- 
nigh  a  match  for  the  Fijians  in  the  diabolical  outbreaks 
of  ferocity  to  which  they  were  addicted.  Thieving 
among  them  was  a  virtue,  war  was  a  passion,  and  they 
ate  their  enemies  out  of  the  impulse  of  pure  revenge. 
Samuel  Marsden,  the  apostle  of  New  Zealand,  while  a 
convict  chaplain  in  New  South  Wales,  had  met  some  of 
these  fiends  incarnate,  his  soul  was  strangely  drawn  out 
in  sympathy  for  them,  and  in  1807,  while  on  a  visit  to 
England,  he  urged  the  Church  Society  to  undertake  the 
task  of  preaching  Christ  in  these  dark  abodes  of  cruelty. 


264  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

Since  no  clergymen  were  to  be  had  in  those  primitive 
days,  three  artisans  were  selected  to  lead  in  making  the 
perilous  attempt.  On  board  the  ship  which  bore  them  to 
their  destination  there  "  chanced  "  to  be  a  poor  Maori,  who 
had  been  beguiled  into  working  his  passage  to  England, 
and  then  had  been  robbed  of  his  wages,  and  left  at  the 
point  of  starvation.  Marsden  befriended  poor  Tuatara, 
both  on  shipboard  and  afterwards  while  waiting  in  Aus- 
tralia, and  sent  him  forward  to  his  home  and  friends  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  advent  of  the  evangelists.  Not 
until  1814  was  the  master- missionary  able  to  lead  a  com- 
pany to  the  islands,  composed  of  mechanics,  settlers,  and 
some  chiefs  who  were  returning,  transporting  also  horses, 
cattle,  sheep  and  poultry,  which  were  altogether  unknown 
to  the  natives.  Casting  anchor  in  the  Bay  of  Islands, 
with  Tuatara  on  hand  to  welcome  and  introduce  him,  he 
was  received  with  eclat,  and  kept  Christmas  on  shore 
with  a  religious  service,  and  a  sermon  from  the  text, 
"  Behold  I  bring  you  good  tidings  of  great  joy."  After- 
wards, to  testify  their  great  delight,  a  troop  of  three  hun- 
dred cannibals,  scantily  attired  and  thoroughly  tattooed, 
surrounded  the  missionary,  dancing,  shouting  and  yelling 
in  fashion  most  blood-curdling.  Other  helpers  came  in 
due  season,  a  few  clergymen  at  length,  and  attempts  were 
made  to  teach  and  preach  ;  but  little  heed  was  paid  to 
the  heavenly  message,  and  all  hearts  were  found  stony, 
and  sordid,  and  altogether  earthy.  Besides,  in  the  fre- 
quent wars,  their  lives  were  often  in  greatest  peril.  After 
eleven  dreadful  years,  in  1825,  a  single  native  seemed  to 
be  penitent  and  was  baptized,  and  then  ensued  five  more 
years  without  any  semblance  of  fruit.  The  saintly  and 
apostolic  Bishop  Selwyn  came  to  his  forbidding  diocese 
in  1842,  bringing  also  a  large  reinforcement.  Nor  was 


THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  SEA.  865 

it  long  before  a  most  abundant  and  wide-spread  harvest 
of  souls  was  gathered  in. 

But  while  the  English  Church  was  toiling,  watching 
and  waiting,  the  Wesleyans  also  had  entered  to  co- 
operate, coming  in  1818  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Mars- 
den,  though  the  appearance  in  London  of  two  Maori 
chiefs  gave  a  great  impulse  in  the  same  direction. 
Choosing  Warangoa  in  the  northern  island  as  the  site 
for  a  mission,  the  foundations  were  scarcely  laid  when  a 
furious  war  broke  out,  and  the  missionaries  barely  es- 
caped with  their  lives.  A  second  start  was  made  the 
next  year,  and  after  the  utmost  of  endeavor,  as  late  as 
1830  no  encouraging  token  appeared,  so  that  abandon- 
ment of  the  work  was  in  contemplation.  But  a  few 
months  later  saw  several  scores  of  savages  under  instruc- 
tion, and  a  class  with  five  members  was  formed.  On  a 
single  Sunday  in  1834,  eighty-four  converts  were  bap- 
tized, and  fourteen  couples  were  married,  and  by  1838 
sixteen  chapels  had  been  built,  at  one  of  which  a  thou- 
sand worshippers  were  wont  to  gather. 

So  many  and  so  zealous  had  been  the  heralds  of  the 
Gospel,  so  copious  had  been  the  outpourings  of  the 
Spirit,  and  so  mighty  to  convince  and  convict  had  been 
the  word,  that  at  the  end  of  thirty  years  from  the  land- 
ing of  the  devoted  convict  chaplain,  New  Zealand  could 
be  regarded  as  at  least  evangelized,  if  not  also  Chris- 
tianized. But,  unfortunately,  as  it  seems  to  human  gaze, 
Great  Britain  was  led,  for  reasons  which  cannot  here  be 
given,  to  set  up  a  protectorate  over  the  islands.  This 
led  to  the  entrance  of  settlers,  and  to  furious  and  pro- 
tracted land  disputes,  and  finally  to  years  of  armed 
strife,  among  v/hose  most  lamentable  results  were  these 
two ;  multitudes  ot  the  Maories  were  slain  in  battle,  and 


266  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

for  multitudes  more  the  strain  to  faith,  and  patience,  and 
endurance,  was  too  great,  and  they  fell  away  into  their 
old  superstitions.  This  calamity  befell  in  the  sixties, 
and  its  evil  effects  are  still  widely  felt.  Out  of  some 
two  hundred  thousands  of  natives  only  about  forty  thou- 
sand remain,  and  these  are  gathered  upon  a  reservation 
in  the  northern  island. 

The  New  Hebrides  easily  take  rank  with  Fiji  and 
New  Zealand  for  the  unspeakable  and  measureless  atroci- 
ties to  which  their  population  was  prone,  and  fairly  excel 
either  or  both  in  respect  to  the  loss  of  life  by  violence 
which  their  redemption  has  cost  the  Christian  Church. 
This  group  is  situated  about  a  thousand  miles  to  the 
north  of  New  Zealand,  and  about  six  hundred  miles  to 
the  west  of  Fiji.  The  islands  number  about  thirty,  and 
nearly  twenty  languages  are  spoken  upon  them,  some- 
times two  or  three  in  different  parts  of  a  single  one. 
However  unlike  the  inhabitants  may  chance  to  be,  they 
are  all  alike  passionate,  treacherous,  and  hold  strangers 
responsible  for  storms,  death,  disease  or  any  other  visi- 
tations of  evil.  In  justice  however  it  should  be  added, 
that  they  are  inhospitable  and  blood-thirsty  in  no  in- 
considerable degree  because  of  the  cruel  wrongs  which 
they  have  long  suffered  at  the  hands  of  sailors,  traders, 
and  labor  agents  if  possible  more  unscrupulous  and 
abandoned  to  wickedness  than  themselves.  This  annex 
to  the  pit  ot  woe  was  first  visi-ted  in  1839  by  those  who 
pitied  the  people  and  would  endeavor  to  melt  their 
hearts  by  telling  the  story  of'  redeeming  love.  John 
Williams  for  almost  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  been 
sailing  hither  and  thither  over  the  South  Pacific  found- 
ing missions  and  distributing  preachers  and  teachers, 
and  now  came  hither  on  the  same  errand.  He  had 


THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  SEA.  867 

brought  a  number  of  Polynesian  disciples  who  were 
ready  to  jeopardize  their  lives  that  they  might  win  souls, 
and  had  put  them  on  shore  at  various  points  which 
seemed  most  eligible.  Reaching  fateful  Erromanga  he 
landed  with  a  companion,  and  in  a  few  minutes  both 
were  murdered  to  furnish  a  cannibal  feast.  Not  long 
after  this  dreadful  tragedy  the  London  Society  sent  two 
missionaries  to  Tanna,  but  after  a  sojourn  of  a  few 
months  they  were  compelled  to  flee  for  their  lives. 
Then  native  teachers  were  again  and  again  located  upon 
various  islands,  with  the  only  result  that  most  either 
died  from  the  effects  of  the  climate,  or  were  killed  and 
eaten  by  the  savages.  It  was  not  until  1848  that  a  per- 
manent mission  was  established,  and  on  Aneityum,  by 
John  Geddie,  sent  out  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Nova  Scotia.  With  only  his  wife  for  counsel  and  com- 
fort, he  endured  untold  trials  for  four  years,  including 
frequent  thefts  of  property,  and  threats  to  burn  their 
buildings  and  take  their  lives.  Then  Mr.  Inglis  came 
from  Scotland,  as  an  associate  in  labor  and  suffering. 
In  particular,  the  remarkable  genius  possessed  by  Mr. 
Geddie  for  doing  many  things,  whether  in  sailing  or 
journeying  on  foot,  in  carpentry,  translating,  printing, 
teaching,  preaching,  administering  medicine,  and  all 
with  unmistakable  and  every  day  tokens  of  his  ardent 
love  for  the  very  worst,  excited  admiration  and  finally 
conquered  confidence  and  even  affection.  Within  two 
years  he  could  gather  a  congregation  on  the  Sabbath  to 
listen  to  the  Gospel  story  and  join  in  worship.  In  1852 
thirteen  were  baptized  and  a  church  was  formed,  and 
by  1854  the  whole  population  had  abandoned  heathen- 
ism, while  by  the  end  of  another  decade  the  island 
could  fairly  be  called  Christian.  As  substantial  evi- 


l68  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

dence  that  the  conversions  were  genuine,  it  is  enough  to 
state  that  by  the  time  the  entire  Bible  was  translated  and 
ready  to  be  printed,  by  cultivating  and  manufacturing 
arrowroot  the  poor  people  had  $6,000  in  hand  to  meet 
the  expense,  and  that  they  have  sent  out  one  hundred 
and  fifty  of  their  best  men  and  women  to  adjoining  is- 
lands as  teachers. 

Fotuna  was  entered  by  teachers  from  Samoa  in  1841, 
but  by  the  end  of  two  years  all  had  been  killed  and  eaten, 
or  thrown  into  the  sea.  Their  place  was  taken  later  and 
held  by  Christians  from  Aneityum,  and  another  from 
Rarotonga,  for  twelve  years,  or  until  a  missionary  came 
with  his  wife  in  1866.  It  was  at  this  date  that  the  Rev. 
J.  G.  Paton  began  his  notable  career  in  the  New  Heb- 
rides, locating  upon  Aniwa,  where  native  teachers  had 
long  been  bearing  the  brunt  of  the  fierce  warfare  against 
the  kingdom  of  darkness,  a  mission  house  was  erected  on 
a  spot  frequently  used  for  cannibal  feasts,  and  eight  years 
more  sufficed  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  light.  But 
Tanna  was  the  principal  scene  of  the  almost  unmatched 
experiences  and  achievements  of  this  prince  among  her- 
alds of  the  cross  in  pagan  lands.  Thrice  over  Samoan 
teachers  and  others  had  made  the  attempt  to  introduce 
the  Gospel,  but  had  been  compelled  to  save  their  lives 
by  flight.  In  1854  however,  some  of  the  natives  on  a 
visit  to  Aneityum,  were  so  deeply  impressed  by  what 
they  saw  of  the  results  of  Christian  civilization  that  they 
asked  for  teachers,  and  these  were  able  to  remain.  Mr. 
Paton  and  others  ventured  into  the  den  of  lions  in  1858 
and  years  following,  though  with  harrowing  scenes, 
deadly  perils  and  fleeing  for  life  to  endure  for  a  decade. 
And  Erromanga  also,  worst  of  all,  was  evangelized,  but 
only  after  much  shedding  of  precious  blood.  After  the 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA.  369 

murder  of  Williams,  Samoan  teachers  played  the  part  of 
pioneers  in  spite  of  frequent  persecution,  and  occasional 
expulsion  by  violence,  several  of  the  islanders  were  sent 
to  Samoa  and  Auckland  to  be  trained  and  Christianized, 
and  were  then  returned  to  labor  among  their  country- 
men, and  Aneityum  disciples  added  their  efforts.  In 
1857  the  Rev.  G.  N.  Gordon  was  sent  from  Nova  Scotia, 
filled  four  years  with  labors  of  love,  and  then,  their  fury 
excited  by  the  destruction  wrought  by  a  hurricane,  and 
a  plague  of  measles  introduced  by  a  trading  vessel,  both 
he  and  his  wife  were  killed.  After  three  years  a  brother 
of  the  martyr,  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Gordon,  offered  himself  to 
fill  the  vacant  place,  devoted  his  strength  without  stint 
to  the  material  and  spiritual  well-being  of  all  about  him, 
and  in  1872  met  his  death  at  the  hands  of  a  treacherous 
native.  But  by  this  time  the  powers  of  evil  had  spent 
their  violence,  other  fervid  and  fearless  souls  took  up 
the  Christlike  task,  converts  soon  began  to  multiply,  and 
now  the  forces  are  uppermost  which  make  for  right- 
eousness, and  peace,  and  joy.  About  twenty  of  the 
islands  may  be  called  Christian,  and  some  fourteen  thou- 
sand have  been  gathered  into  churches.  Eight  branches 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  are  happily  joined  in  the 
New  Hebrides  mission.  Mention  must  not  be  omitted 
of  Bishop  Patteson  and  his  distinguished  services  in 
Melanesia,  a  man  whose  gifts  and  graces,  whose  godly 
ambitions  and  achievements  in  a  broad  and  desolate  field 
belong  in  the  same  list  with  those  of  Williams  and 
Selwyn.  He  also  attained  to  the  crown  of  martyrdom 
in  1871  in  Nackapu,  one  of  the  northern  islands  of  the 
group,  being  slain  by  the  savage  natives,  and  because 
his  vessel  was  mistaken  for  the  craft  in  which  a  party  of 
kidnappers  had  paid  a  visit  not  long  before  in  the  pur- 


§7O  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

suit  of  their  nefarious  business,  and  which  they  had 
painted  to  resemble  the  one  in  which  his  frequent  voy- 
ages were  made. 

A  few  words  must  suffice  for  New  Guinea,  the  largest 
of  islands,  but  sparsely  populated,  little  known  in  the  in- 
terior, and  besides  so  recently  visited  with  the  Gospel 
that  not  much  of  progress  can  be  narrated.  The  Dutch, 
the  Germans  and  the  British  have  divided  the  area  be- 
ween  them,  the  latter  taking  the  portion  lying  to  the 
southeast  and  nearest  to  Australia,  from  which  it  is  sepa- 
rated by  Torres  Strait.  The  Utrecht  Society  began  work 
as  far  back  as  1863,  and  the  London  Society  followed 
in  1871,  securing  the  bulk  of  its  teachers  in  the  South 
Seas.  Upwards  of  fifty  stations  have  been  opened  along 
the  southeast  coast,  while  the  churches  have  sixteen 
hundred  members,  and  the  schools  about  two  thousand 
pupils.  The  Wesleyans  also  have  a  mission  in  which 
similar  results  can  be  reckoned,  and  the  Rhenish  Society 
is  engaged  in  breaking  ground  in  Kaiser  Wilhelm's  Land 
at  the  north.  In  all  some  seventy  churches  have  been 
formed,  and  six  score  native  preachers  are  in  the 
field. 

THE  EAST  INDIES. 

Other  terms  applied  to  this  vast  and  wonderful  island 
region  are,  the  Spice  Islands,  the  Moluccas,  Malaysia, 
the  Indian  Archipelago  and  the  Malay  Archipelago. 
And  the  numerous  bodies  of  land  are  included  which 
stretch  over  such  a  long  line  from  the  southeastern  corner 
of  Asia  almost  to  Australia.  Since  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, the  Dutch  have  been  in  possession  at  most  points. 
The  Philippines,  long  Spanish  dependencies,  and  yet 
so  intensely,  and  exclusively,  and  intolerantly  Roman 


THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  SEA.  27 1 

Catholic,  may  be  omitted  from  this  review.  The  min- 
gling of  races,  and  tribes,  and  religions,  in  these  parts  is 
something  amazing.  In  Singapore  alone  a  hundred 
tongues  are  said  to  be  spoken,  and  the  Bible  is  distrib- 
uted in  no  less  than  forty-five.  With  Malays  in  a  vast 
majority,  are  jumbled  Arabs,  Chinamen,  Siamese,  Battas 
in  Sumatra  and  Dyaks  in  Borneo,  etc.,  etc.  The  total 
population  of  the  East  Indies  is  about  40,000,000,  of 
whom  most  are  Moslems,  and  more  than  half  are  found 
in  Java.  From  the  beginning  Christian  missions  have 
been  very  generally  in  the  hands  of  Netherlanders, 
though  the  Rhenish  Society  has  toiled  faithfully  and  with 
most  encouraging  success,  and  the  English  Propagation 
Society  in  certain  sections  has  made  an  impression  both 
deep  and  broad. 

Though  Java  is  but  the  fourth  island  for  size,  in  almost 
every  other  respect  it  is  of  more  importance  than  any  of 
its  neighbors.  The  density  of  the  population  is  nearly 
equal  to  that  of  many  portions  of  Europe,  while  the  soil 
yields  a  store  of  valuable  productions  such  as  few  terri- 
tories of  equal  extent  can  match.  With  the  Dutch  East 
India  Company  in  political  control,  a  corporation  whose 
narrow  and  non-Christian  policy  much  resembled  its 
British  counterpart,  we  are  not  surprised  to  learn  that  not 
much  of  value  was  undertaken  for  the  spiritual  elevation 
of  the  natives.  Though  chaplains  and  others  did  some 
evangelizing  work,  and  several  truly  devout  and  earnest 
men  made  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  yet  on  the  whole 
the  state  so  seriously  denied  the  church  that  the  conver- 
sions were  but  superficial  and  scarcely  more  than  in 
name.  And  hence  it  signifies  little  when  we  read  that 
in  1712  there  were  in  Java  100,000  "  Christians."  But 
during  this  century  missions  have  been  on  a  vastly  better 


172  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

basis,  and  the  Netherlands  Society  reports  1 2,000  con- 
verts who  have  been  secured  in  the  main  from  the  ranks 
of  the  Mohammedans.  A  seminary  has  been  opened  in 
Depok  for  the  training  of  evangelists,  from  which  seventy- 
one  have  already  graduated,  coming  from  Borneo,  Su- 
matra, Sangir,  Almaheira  and  Dutch  New  Guinea.  And 
this  further  should  be  said,  to  the  praise  of  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company,  now  happily  extinct.  The  New 
Testament  was  translated  into  Malay  as  far  back  as  1688, 
and  the  Old  Testament  in  1733,  and  both  were  printed 
at  the  expense  of  this  body  of  merchants. 

The  English  Baptists  sent  missionaries  to  the  Battas, 
the  aboriginal  tribes  of  Sumatra,  and  dwelling  in  the  in- 
terior, in  1820,  but  for  some  reason  their  presence  ex- 
cited the  jealousy  and  suspicion  of  the  Dutch  rulers, 
who  put  so  many  hindrances  in  their  way  as  to  make  it 
seem  expedient  to  abandon  the  field.  Between  1827 
and  1836  several  missionaries  from  Holland  entered  the 
island,  to  bestow  their  main  attention  upon  the  Chinese 
immigrants,  and  yet  making  also  not  a  few  converts 
among  the  Malays,  and  whether  heathen  or  Moslem.  In 
1834  the  American  Board  designated  Munson  and  Lyman 
to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  Battas,  but  while  they  were 
exploring  to  fix  upon  the  best  location  for  work,  a  war 
broke  out  among  the  savages,  and  both  were  murdered. 
It  is  the  Rhenish  Society  of  Germany  which  has  wielded 
the  chief  evangelizing  force  in  Sumatra.  Beginning  in 
1860,  two  quite  extensive  fields  have  been  tilled,  with 
Toba  Lake  yielding  the  richest  harvest  of  souls  brought 
to  a  knowledge  of  Jesus.  And  not  only  are  the  heathen 
casting  away  their  idols,  but  more  and  more  the  follow- 
ers of  the  false  Prophet  are  turning  from  him  to  the 
Saviour  of  the  world.  In  the  neighboring  island  of 


THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  SEA.  273 

Nias  many  converts  have  also  been  made.  The  entire 
number  of  adherents  exceeds  fifty-five  thousand,  the  com- 
municants are  about  twenty-four  thousand,  and  forty-six 
hundred  were  baptized  in  1901.  It  is  in  Sumatra  that 
this  society  finds  its  strongest  mission. 

Borneo  is  the  largest  island  in  the  East  Indies,  but  is 
thinly  inhabited.  The  aboriginal  Dyaks  of  the  interior 
deserve  a  place  among  the  strangest  of  people,  whose 
houses  are  commonly  built  on  piles,  and  numerous  fami- 
lies are  found  dwelling  in  a  single  structure  several  hun- 
dred feet  in  length.  Until  Christianity  and  civilization 
had  done  their  work,  war  was  their  chief  end,  with 
head-taking  as  the  special  concomitant.  Beheading  was 
performed  by  the  wholesale,  on  the  slightest  occasion 
and  without  ceremony,  and  with  very  much  the  same 
idea  as  scalps  were  removed  by  our  Indians.  A  young 
man  was  not  allowed  to  marry  until  he  was  possessed  of 
a  number  of  these  hideous  tokens  of  his  skill  and 
prowess,  while  a  large  assortment  constituted  the  glory 
of  the  family.  The  graves  of  chiefs  were  fenced  about 
with  a  line  of  heads,  and  there  was  no  more  efficacious 
safeguard  against  evil  spirits  than  that  secured  by  a  pious 
offering  of  sculls.  In  1839  the  American  Board  sent  a 
company  of  missionaries  to  this  island,  to  enter  upon 
what  proved  to  be  a  ten  years'  struggle  with  the  Dutch 
authorities,  whose  settled  policy  was  to  exclude  all  for- 
eigners from  the  interior,  and  finally,  after  some  had 
died,  the  survivors  were  instructed  to  retire  from  the 
field.  Beginning  in  1834,  within  twenty  years  a  score 
of  ambassadors  for  Christ  were  located  among  the  Dyaks 
in  South  Borneo  by  the  Rhenish  Society.  With  slight 
encouragement  at  first,  at  length  a  marked  change  began 
to  be  visible  in  the  barbarous  head-takers.  But  of  a 


274  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

sudden,  in  1859,  stirred  up  by  the  fanatical  Mohammed- 
ans, the  heathen  party  rose  in  murderous  fury  and  killed 
four,  with  three  of  their  wives  and  several  children,  pil- 
laged the  mission  and  pulled  down  the  buildings.  And 
so  in  an  hour  the  work  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  was  prac- 
tically annihilated.  To  crown  their  sorrows,  the  mis- 
sionaries were  held  responsible  for  the  outbreak  by  the 
Dutch  rulers,  and  were  treated  with  worse  than  coldness 
and  neglect.  But  with  the  utmost  of  Christian  heroism 
they  held  on,  and  in  1866  better  days  began  to  dawn. 
Upwards  of  thirty  native  helpers  have  been  raised  up, 
and  a  training  school  is  maintained  to  fit  evangelists  to 
labor  for  the  redemption  of  their  Dyak  countrymen. 
Some  seven  hundred  are  found  in  the  churches  and  the 
adherents  are  numbered  by  the  thousand.  The  Propaga- 
tion Society  (S.  P.  G.)  came  to  North  Borneo  in  1847, 
and  through  the  presence  there  of  the  famous  English- 
man, Rajah  Brooke  of  Sarawak,  and  from  that  day  to 
this  a  body  of  godly  and  self-denying  men  have  devoted 
themselves  to  the  welfare  of  certain  tribes  notorious  and 
dreaded  far  and  wide  for  frequent  acts  of  piracy,  as  well 
of  others  further  inland ;  nor  have  their  arduous  labors 
been  in  vain.  The  beneficent  institutions  of  the  Gospel 
have  been  planted  and  are  steadily  growing,  and  many 
souls  have  been  redeemed  from  sin. 

Nowhere  in  the  Indian  Archipelago  do  the  effects  of 
Dutch  rule  and  evangelistic  effort  appear  to  better  ad- 
vantage than  in  Celebes,  and  especially  in  Minahassa,  the 
northeast  portion.  Many  heathen  were  instructed  and 
baptized  during  the  last  century,  and  in  1822  the  Neth- 
erlands Society  sent  its  representatives  to  begin  special 
and  systematic  work.  Other  organizations  have  followed 
to  assist  in  sowing  and  reaping,  and  with  such  success 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA.  275 

that  now  in  a  total  population  of  145,000  about  135,000 
Protestant  Christians  are  to  be  found.  In  Sangir  also, 
an  island  lying  not  far  to  the  east  of  Minahassa,  and  so 
recently  desolated  by  a  terrible  catastrophe,  where  the 
inhabitants  number  80,000,  more  than  a  third  have  for- 
saken their  heathenism.  And  Amboyna  has  scarcely  any 
non-Christians  left,  whether  pagan  or  Mohammedan. 

In  all  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  according  to  Grunde- 
mann,  there  are  199  European  missionaries  engaged  in 
efforts  to  Christianize  the  natives,  representing  13  socie- 
ties, with  31  native  ministers  and  830  other  native 
helpers,  and  108,000  communicants  among  the  fruits  of 
toil.  The  Netherlands  Society  alone  has  some  90,000 
adherents.  At  the  end  of  1901  the  Rhenish  Society  was 
maintaining  a  staff  of  75  Europeans,  and  320  paid  with 
752  unpaid  native  helpers.  In  the  schools  were  10,569 
pupils,  and  in  the  churches,  23,859  communicants,  while 
the  adherents  aggregated  almost  56,000,  of  whom  4,550 
were  added  last  year.  According  to  Grundemann,  in 
1901  there  was  a  total  of  356,112  Christians. 

THE  WEST  INDIES. 

This  is  a  name  bestowed  by  the  immortal  discoverer 
under  the  impulse  of  a  mistaken  conviction,  and  it 
stands  for  what  a  world  of  tragedy,  of  depravity,  and  of 
shame  !  "  From  the  second  visit  of  Columbus  until  the 
present  century,  these  islands  have  been  the  scene  of  sor- 
row and  oppression.  Their  waters  have  been  dyed  with 
human  blood.  .  .  .  Piracy  was  rife,  and  the  commerce 
of  Europe  suffered  from  the  marauding  buccaneers  who 
smarted  from  the  wrongs  they  suffered,  and  retaliated  on 
the  innocent  as  well  as  the  guilty.  The  slave  trade  had 
its  origin  here,  and  the  hardly  less  cruel  importation  of 


276  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS.  ] 

coolies  has  left  its  curse.  For  years  these  islands  were 
England's  penal  colonies.  Into  this  moral  sewer  was 
swept  the  refuse  of  Europe.  Is  it  strange,  then,  that 
these  lands  should  have  been  sunk  in  the  lowest  depths 
of  sin  and  degradation?  Various  European  nations 
have  parcelled  out  among  themselves  the  islands  which 
number  nearly  a  thousand,  and  only  Haiti  and  (since 
1902)  Cuba  are  left  independent;  Porto  Rico  has  re- 
cently by  cession  become  an  integral  part  of  the  United 
States ;  Great  Britain  claims  ownership  in  the  Ba- 
hamas, Jamaica,  Barbados,  etc. ;  France  is  master  of 
Guadaloupe,  Martinique,  etc. ;  Denmark  of  St.  Thomas, 
Santa  Cruz,  etc. ;  and  the  Netherlands  of  four  small 
islands.  The  original  inhabitants  have  entirely  disap- 
peared. For  years  they  were  enslaved,  worked  to  death 
in  the  mines,  or  shipped  over  seas  by  their  Spanish  mas- 
ters, and  then  with  the  energy  of  despair  rising  against 
their  inhuman  oppressors  were  annihilated.  In  Haiti 
alone  two  millions  of  aborigines  were  found,  but  in 
thirty  years  scarcely  one  was  left  alive.  Then  Negro 
slaves  began  to  be  imported,  the  Portuguese  setting  the 
iniquitous  example,  and  later  every  nation  possessing 
colonies  in  this  region  shared  in  the  infamy  to  the  full. 
It  is  estimated  that  to  Jamaica  alone,  between  1 700  and 
1 786,  not  less  than  600,000  were  brought  from  African 
shores.  Almost  everywhere  the  Negroes  far  outnumber 
the  whites.  Hindus  and  Chinese,  who  are  held  in  at 
least  semi-slavery,  also  constitute  no  inconsiderable  part 
of  the  population. 

The  Moravians  were  the  first  to  hear  and  heed  the 
cry  of  woe  which  ascended  to  heaven  from  these  dread- 
ful depths,  and  away  back  in  1734,  when  the  whole 
Christian  world  was  dead  to  such  sympathy  and  longing, 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA.  »77 

and  sent  two  men  to  carry  the  light  to  those  who  sat  in 
the  shadow  of  death.  The  scene  of  their  earliest  labors 
and  sufferings  was  in  the  Danish  possessions.  The  de- 
graded and  most  wretched  creatures,  who  had  never 
heard  of  joy  and  peace  and  salvation,  at  first  wondered 
and  were  incredulous  concerning  the  message  which  of- 
fered the  riches  of  Divine  love  to  such  as  they,  but  were 
soon  eager  to  listen  and  glad  to  accept.  Aside  from  the 
dense  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the  slaves,  the  prin- 
cipal obstacles  were  placed  ia  the  way  of  the  missionaries 
by  the  Europeans,  through  their  ungodliness,  sectarian 
prejudice,  and  the  interference  of  the  civil  authorities. 
In  addition,  the  climate  was  so  deadly  that  at  the  close 
of  eleven  years  thirty-five  had  found  graves  in  West 
Indian  soil.  But  there  was  no  lack  of  volunteers  to  fill 
the  places' of  those  who  were  glad  to  die  if  need  be.  For 
almost  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  these  humble,  pa- 
tient, much-enduring  bringers  of  good  things  to  the  low- 
est of  the  low  have  held  on,  occupying  in  later  times 
Jamaica,  Antigua,  Barbados,  Tobago  and  Trinidad. 
And  their  reward  also  has  been  commensurate  with  their 
toil,  in  souls  enlightened  and  sanctified  and  raised  to 
heaven.  According  to  the  latest  report  46  principal 
stations  are  occupied  by  58  European  missionaries  of 
both  sexes,  the  pupils  in  the  schools  number  16,588,  the 
communicants  17,336  and  the  native  Christians  upwards 
of  40,000. 

The  English  Wesleyans  were  the  next  to  offer  to  the 
bondmen  the  freedom  of  the  Gospel.  In  1758  an  Eng- 
lish planter  of  Antigua  while  on  a  visit  to  his  native  land 
had  heard  Wesley  preach,  was  deeply  wrought  upon, 
turned  Methodist,  and  two  of  his  slaves  were  baptized  by 
the  great  evangelist.  Returning,  he  carried  the  truth  as 


278  A   HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

it  is  in  Jesus,  and  proclaimed  it  to  both  black  and  white 
until  his  death.  His  place  was  filled  by  two  slaves  for  a 
season,  but  at  length  one  Baxter,  a  shipwright  and  local 
preacher,  came  to  lead,  and  the  congregation  steadily 
grew  until  large  numbers  were  wont  to  assemble  for  wor- 
ship. Then  in  1786  came  a  reinforcement,  and  through 
one  of  the  strangest  of  providences.  Dr.  Coke  had  sailed 
for  Nova  Scotia  with  several  missionaries,  but  in  a  long 
and  furious  tempest  had  been  driven  far  to  the  south. 
On  Christmas  Day  the  party,  all  weather-beaten  and 
covered  with  brine,  landed  in  Antigua,  and  met  Baxter 
just  on  his  way  to  hold  a  service.  A  thousand  Negroes 
were  in  attendance,  to  whom  Coke  preached,  and  was  so 
deeply  impressed  with  their  need  and  their  eagerness  to 
receive,  that  he  left  the  helpers  he  had  with  him  in  this 
and  the  neighboring  islands,  and  sent  others  in  addi- 
tion. One  after  another,  twenty  islands  received  the 
Gospel  by  this  "  accident,"  and  among  them  were  the 
Bahamas,  Barbados,  Trinidad  and  Jamaica.  Several  at- 
tempts were  made  to  enter  Haiti,  but  on  account  of  the 
trying  climate,  frequent  revolutions  and  Roman  Catholic 
intolerance,  not  much  has  been  accomplished.  In  Ja- 
maica and  elsewhere  for  many  years  constant  opposition 
was  experienced,  at  first  because  of  intense  prejudice 
against  Methodists,  and  later  because  in  all  the  bitter 
struggle  with  slavery  these  missionaries  gave  their 
hearty  sympathy  to  those  in  bondage.  But  in  spite  of 
all  a  great  work  has  been  accomplished,  so  that  the  con- 
verts now  number  upwards  of  40,000  and  the  attendants 
upon  public  worship  are  more  than  125,000. 

The  English  Church  Society  and  the  Propagation  So- 
ciety have  labored  long  and  faithfully  in  the  West 
Indies,  not  only  for  the  blacks,  but  for  the  white  col- 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA.  279 

onists  also.  In  1813  the  Baptists  of  Great  Britain  un- 
dertook missions  in  behalf  of  the  enslaved,  and  by  1831, 
31  churches  had  been  formed  in  Jamaica  with  10,838 
members.  But  in  that  year  occurred  an  uprising  of  the 
Negroes,  which  the  missionaries  were  falsely  accused  of 
countenancing,  if  not  even  instigating.  William  Knibb 
and  others  were  arrested,  charged  with  rebellion,  and 
threatened  with  lynching  by  the  planters,  and  several 
chapels  were  burned.  Other  trials  of  a  different  kind 
followed  emancipation  in  1834,  but  such  was  the  growth 
of  the  good  work  that  in  1842  it  became  self-supporting. 
The  Jamaica  Baptist  Union  now  includes  173  churches 
with  39,065  members,  and  there  are  21,709  pupils  in  the 
schools.  Elsewhere  among  the  islands  considerable  work 
is  done. 

At  its  formation  in  1847,  tne  United  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scotland  entered  into  the  labors  of  two  so- 
cieties, which  had  been  engaged  in  the  field  for  years, 
but  was  called  almost  at  once  to  pass  through  a  most  re- 
markable and  trying  series  of  calamities,  caused  by 
climate,  by  cholera,  by  tempest,  and  by  the  burning  of  a 
vessel  at  sea,  among  the  rest,  to  the  loss  of  the  lives  of 
half  a  dozen  missionaries ;  but  enduring  to  the  end,  are 
able  to  point,  both  in  Jamaica  and  Trinidad,  to  not  a  lit- 
tle of  substantial  results  for  the  furtherance  of  the  king- 
dom of  righteousness.  Thus  the  mission  churches  con- 
tain 11,647  members.  The  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Canada  is  in  joint  occupation  of  Trinidad,  entering  in 
1869,  but  makes  a  specialty  of  caring  for  the  bodies,  and 
minds,  and  souls,  of  East  Indian  coolies,  who  in  that 
island  and  the  neighboring  regions  number  more  than 
300,000.  While  many  are  continually  coming  and  go- 
ing, many  others  become  permanent  settlers.  To  these 


280  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

heathen  whose  case  is  so  forlorn,  who  under  contract- 
labor  upon  the  sugar  plantations  are  in  a  condition  of 
semi-slavery,  the  glad  tidings  were  carried,  that,  even  for 
them  the  Son  of  God  offered  his  life  in  loving  sacrifice, 
and  so  freedom,  and  full  manhood,  and  holiness,  and 
joy  eternal,  are  possible.  Six  ordained  missionaries  are 
now  cultivating  this  field,  and  four  unmarried  women  give 
themselves  to  teaching.  Two  ordained  Hindus  are  as- 
sociated with  them  and,  also  39  more  are  under  training 
for  the  ministry.  In  52  schools  are  4,324  pupils.  The 
communicants  number  573,  and  the  native  contributions 
reached  $2,785  in  1892.  A  college  has  recently  been 
established. 

Perhaps  in  no  other  mission  field  is  it  so  difficult  to  set 
forth  in  a  brief  summary  an  adequate  statement  of  the 
work  of  the  Gospel.  The  totals  for  the  organizations 
named,  and  for  a  few  others  which  are  bearing  a  part  in 
illumining  the  darkness,  are  these,  approximately  :  The 
European  missionaries  number  225,  with  nearly  100  or- 
dained natives  is  efficient  co-operation.  There  are  some 
40,000  pupils  in  the  mission  schools,  and  130,000  mem- 
bers in  the  churches.  For  the  adherents,  330,000  is  a 
conservative  figure.  But  to  these  sums  is  to  be  added  a 
very  large  increment,  resulting  from  what  is  accom- 
plished by  various  organizations  representing  the  English 
Church,  and  whose  toil  is  bestowed  upon  Europeans  and 
Negroes  together.  Ten  years  ago  it  could  be  affirmed  : 
"  In  all  of  the  British  West  Indies,  with  over  1,000,000 
inhabitants,  248,000  are  regular  attendants  at  the  house 
of  God;  about  85,000  are  communicants  in  the  various 
mission  churches,  and  78,600  children  are  being  in- 
structed in  1,123  day  schools  (about  45,000  of  these  in 
Jamaica.") 


CHAPTER  XVL 

MISSIONS   IN  THE  TURKISH  EMPIRE. 

OR  perhaps  the  phrase  "  Missions  to  the  Oriental 
Churches  "  would  be  more  fitting,  since  the  Nestorians 
are  included ;  or  "  to  Western  Asia,"  for  though  Egypt 
is  omitted,  a  portion  of  Persia  is  to  pass  under  view ;  or 
with  certain  limitations,  "  to  Mohammedan  countries." 
This  undertaking  of  the  modern  church  is  second  to 
none,  either  for  interest  or  importance.  For  it  relates 
almost  wholly  to  Bible  lands,  Palestine,  Babylon, 
Assyria  and  the  rest,  and  is  intimately  connected  with 
Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Damascus,  the  Seven  Churches  of 
Asia  Minor,  and  scores  of  other  names,  which  call 
forcibly  to  mind  the  godly  lives  and  inspiring  deeds  of 
patriarchs,  prophets  and  apostles,  as  well  as  the  heavenly 
ministry  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth.  Classical  history  is 
also  constantly  reproduced  by  the  story  of  missionary 
toil,  for  it  relates  to  Tyre  and  Troy,  Byzantium  and 
Athens,  Cyprus  and  the  Bosphorus,  cities  which  live  in 
the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  regions  in 
which  Alexander  and  the  Caesars  wrought,  at  least  in 
part,  the  wonders  that  gave  them  undying  fame.  Then, 
too,  this  was  the  theater  in  which  the  Gospel  achieved  its 
earliest  victories,  from  which  later  it  was  well-nigh 
altogether  expelled,  and  where  ever  since  the  prophet  of 
Arabia  has  been  held  in  highest  honor,  while  to  be  a 
disciple  of  Jesus  was  to  be  in  subjection,  most  cruel  and 
degrading  servitude,  and  to  court  continual  insult  and 

281 


282  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

scorn.  Therefore,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  to  carry  Protestant 
Christianity  to  Western  Asia  was  to  avenge  a  shameful 
robbery,  was  to  restore  to  Christ  his  own.  As  no  other 
mission,  this  one  partakes  of  the  nature  of  a  crusade. 

It  is  also  worthy  of  notice  that  a  peculiar  and  remark- 
able providence  is  discernible  at  many  points  in  the 
narrative  of  the  re-introduction  of  the  Gospel  into  lands 
long  possessed  by  the  Moslem.  And  beginning  as  far 
back  as  the  day  when  the  fearful  catastrophe  befell  the 
church.  How  strange,  but  how  fortunate  beyond  ex- 
pression, that  when  the  fanatical  Arabs  made  their  con- 
quests with  a  fury  which  nothing  could  resist,  and  also 
afterwards  when  the  Turks  entered  into  supreme  power, 
the  Christians  were  not  all  put  to  the  sword,  were  not 
even  compelled  to  accept  the  Koran,  but  the  only 
demand  was  for  submission  to  political  rule.  Within 
certain  limits  each  sect  was  left  autonomous,  possessed  a 
separate  existence  inside  the  state,  its  ecclesiastical 
officers  and  religious  customs  were  recognized  and  pro- 
tected by  law.  And  so  for  twelve  centuries  a  half-dozen 
or  more  of  churches,  having  indeed  a  faith  and  practice 
at  many  points  exceedingly  corrupt,  but  also  retaining 
not  a  few  germs  of  truth  and  Christian  virtue,  had  lived 
on  and  on,  in  spite  of  unspeakable  trials  and  hindrances 
of  all  sorts,  and  as  if  preserved  of  God  in  waiting  to  per- 
form an  essential  service,  when  a  brighter  day  should 
dawn.  If  the  fact  had  been  otherwise,  if  the  Crescent 
in  every  particular  had  triumphed  over  the  Cross,  if  the 
Oriental  Churches  had  been  destroyed  in  form  and  in 
substance,  it  is  impossible  to  see  how  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus  could  ever  again  have  gained  a  foothold  in  the 
land  of  its  origin.  But  not  so  now.  For  millions  are 
found  scattered  through  every  province  and  almost  every 


MISSIONS   IN   THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  283 

community  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  who  love  the  Bible, 
hold  in  reverence  the  name  of  Christ,  and  are  not  with, 
out  appreciation  for  better  spiritual  things,  and  longings 
to  possess  them.  And  only  let  these  Christians,  or  even 
a  large  proportion  of  them,  be  turned  from  their  serious 
errors  and  their  lamentable  shortcomings,  let  the  pure 
light  which  once  shone  be  rekindled,  and  the  ancient 
flame  of  love  and  zeal  and  devotion,  and  then  the  day  of 
redemption  for  their  Mohammedan  masters  will  be  at 
hand.  Why  should  the  Turks  accept  such  scandalous 
perversions  and  caricatures  of  Christianity  as  have  been 
from  the  beginning  presented  to  their  gaze?  Why 
should  they  not  despise  and  abhor  the  superstition,  auc*. 
idolatry,  and  moral  corruption,  which  have  universally 
been  identified  with  those  who  claimed  to  be  repre- 
sentatives of  New  Testament  piety  ?  And  we  cannot  but 
believe,  the  signs  of  the  times  unite  to  inspire  the 
blessed  expectation,  that  it  is  the  glorious  mission  of  the 
Oriental  Churches,  reformed,  renewed,  refilled  with  life 
divine,  to  play  for  the  Turkish  Empire  the  part  per- 
formed on  a  scale  so  vast  by  the  Jews  in  the  early  spread 
of  the  Gospel. 

And  further,  we  must  not  fail  to  take  note  how 
curiously  it  has  come  to  pass  that  while  the  movement  to 
re-evangelize  the  Orient  was  in  the  days  of  feeble  in- 
fancy, and  the  corrupt  hierarchy  rose  up  in  opposition 
and  determination  to  crush  it  out  by  violence,  countenance 
and  protection  were  frequently  vouchsafed  by  Moslem  au- 
thority, the  hand  of  persecution  was  stayed,  and  the  right 
to  live  unmolested  and  to  grow  was  established  on  firm 
foundations.  It  almost  provokes  a  smile  to  recall  how 
when  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  resented  and  resisted 
the  attempts  of  American  disciples  to  substitute  a  pure 


284  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

religion  for  a  corrupt  one,  they  were  compelled  by  the 
Sultan,  universal  head  of  Islam  that  he  is,  to  refrain 
from  the  use  of  all  carnal  weapons  and  to  suffer  truth  and 
righteousness  to  work  their  revolutions.  And  how  sur- 
prisingly near  to  the  irony  of  fate  will  the  outcome  ap- 
proach when,  after  the  irresistible  forces  resident  in  New 
Testament  ideas  and  convictions  and  longings  have  thus 
been  developed  and  massed  and  marshaled,  these  same 
forces  shall  work  mightily  and  most  effectually  for  the 
utter  overthrow  of  the  political  and  religious  system 
without  whose  aid,  at  least  so  far  as  human  eye  can  see, 
energy  and  momentum  sufficient  for  so  great  a  task 
could  never  have  been  gained.  But  we  need  not  wonder 
at  this,  for  ours  is  a  God  who  is  easily  able  to  make  the 
wrath  of  man  to  praise  him  and  the  remainder  of  wrath 
to  restrain. 

For  some  reason  it  has  happened,  and  very  fortunately, 
that  among  important  missionary  fields  this  one  has  been 
left  largely,  and  for  the  first  fifty  years  almost  wholly, 
under  the  care  of  a  single  society,  the  American  Board. 
But  not,  however,  to  be  supported  and  managed  by  the 
Congregationalists  alone,  for  no  less  than  five  denomina- 
tions were  then  united  under  one  organization,  including 
the  Presbyterians,  Dutch  Reformed,  German  Reformed 
and  Associate  Reformed.  Moreover,  the  Turkish  mis- 
sion is  one  of  the  largest  anywhere  to  be  found,  whether 
for  the  cost  of  maintenance,  the  force  of  laborers  en- 
gaged, or  the  number  of  members  gathered  into  the 
churches ;  and  upon  it  are  expended  just  about  one-third 
of  the  income  of  one  of  the  foremost  of  all  the  socie- 
ties, as  well  as  one-third  of  the  energies  of  all  the  men 
and  women  employed ;  while,  curiously,  within  its  limits 
are  found  also  one-third  of  all  the  communicants,  of  the 


MISSIONS  IN  THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  185 

native  Christians,  and  of  the  children  under  instruction 
in  the  schools.  Only  two  missions  of  the  American 
Board  are  older  than  this  one,  those  in  Bombay  and 
Ceylon,  though  a  party  of  pioneers  for  the  Gospel  was 
despatched  to  the  Sandwich  Islands  almost  simultan- 
eously with  another  to  Western  Asia.  When  Fisk  and 
Parsons  were  set  apart  to  their  work  in  1818,  though 
Palestine  was  named  as  their  destination,  and  the  Jews 
were  thought  of  as  the  objects  of  their  toil,  the  future 
was  entirely  hidden  from  their  gaze.  And  when  a  year 
later  they  set  forth,  they  went  out  not  knowing  whither. 
The  official  instructions  suggest :  "  From  the  heights  of 
the  Holy  Land  you  will  take  an  extended  view  of  the 
wide-spread  desolations  and  variegated  scenes  presenting 
themselves  on  every  side  to  Christian  sensibility ;  and 
will  survey  with  earnest  attention  the  various  tribes  and 
classes  who  dwell  in  that  land  and  in  the  surrounding 
countries."  And  they  were  bidden  to  search  with  all 
diligence  to  ascertain  what  good  could  be  done,  and  by 
what  means,  for  Jews,  for  pagans,  for  Mohammedans, 
for  Christians,  for  people  in  Palestine,  in  Egypt,  Syria, 
Persia,  Armenia,  and  in  other  countries  to  which  their 
inquiries  may  be  extended.  For  those  were  primeval 
days,  the  world  was  largely  unknown  and  inaccessible, 
and  open  fields  were  few  and  hard  to  find.  After  a  halt 
at  Malta,  Smyrna  became  their  headquarters  while  en- 
deavoring to  master  several  Oriental  languages,  and  tours 
were  made  through  the  ^Egean,  and  to  the  sites  of  the 
Seven  Churches  of  Asia  Minor.  In  1821  Parsons  en- 
tered Jerusalem,  but  was  not  able  to  make  it  his  abode, 
and  a  few  months  later  his  health  failing,  with  his  com- 
panion voyaged  to  Egypt  where  he  died.  By  this  time 
Beirut  had  been  found  to  be  a  most  convenient  place  for 


286  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

a  central  station,  and  Fisk,  with  Jonas  King  for  associ- 
ate, resorted  thither,  journeying  also  here  and  there, 
among  the  rest  over  the  Lebanon  range,  and  to  Jerusa- 
lem, if  haply  they  might  remain.  But  in  1825  the 
former  fell  a  victim  to  the  climate.  The  work  was  taken 
up  and  carried  on  by  Bird  and  Goodell  and  Eli  Smith, 
who  fixed  themselves  in  Beirut  and  at  once  began  to  dis- 
tribute in  several  languages  the  Word  of  God  and  other 
Christian  literature,  to  open  schools,  and  in  every  possi- 
ble way  to  do  the  work  of  evangelists.  Their  hearts 
were  also  cheered  by  the  visits  of  various  inquirers,  and 
by  being  able  to  lead  a  few  to  embrace  the  truth.  The 
Greek  Revolution  was  now  in  the  midst  of  its  course, 
and  the  excitements  attending  the  struggle  led  to  so 
many  embarrassments  and  to  such  perils  that  in  1828  it 
was  deemed  prudent  to  retire  to  Malta,  and  for  two 
years  the  mission  was  suspended.  Six  years  before  a 
printing  press  had  been  set  up  in  this  island  by  the 
Board,  and  had  been  kept  busy  sending  forth  a  variety 
of  books  and  tracts  in  seven  languages  of  the  Orient. 

During  these  trying  days  of  watching  and  waiting  for 
the  pillar  of  cloud  to  rise  and  move  forward,  it  had  al- 
ready come  to  pass  that  in  several  ways  the  indication 
had  been  given  that  the  Armenian  Christians,  numbering 
two  or  three  millions,  and  scattered  everywhere  through- 
out the  Turkish  Empire,  were  easily  accessible  and  would 
welcome  the  presentation  of  a  pure  Gospel.  The  capital 
alone  contained  some  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand, 
and  as  many  Greek  Christians,  the  two  together  consti- 
tuting a  third  of  the  entire  population.  And  at  a  con- 
ference held  in  Malta  it  was  determined  to  divide  the 
mission,  and  while  reoccupying  Beirut,  to  send  Mr. 
Goodell  to  begin  work  in  Constantinople.  Though  it 


MISSIONS  IN   THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  287 

seemed  at  the  time  so  insignificant,  it  was  really  one  of 
the  great  events  which  occurred  when  in  1831  this  soli- 
tary stranger  from  America  took  up  his  residence  in  the 
famed  metropolis  of  the  Ottoman  realm.  While  he  was 
looking  about,  laying  his  plans  and  setting  in  operation 
various  intellectual  and  spiritual  forces,  two  men,  Smith 
and  Dwight,  had  started  upon  a  memorable  exploring 
tour  through  Asia  Minor,  as  far  as  to  the  Nestorians  in 
northwestern  Persia.  Nearly  a  year  and  a  half  was  con- 
sumed, and  some  twenty-five  hundred  laborious  miles 
were  gone  over,  but  the  undertaking  was  destined  to 
bring  back  a  rich  return. 

Leaving  for  the  moment  the  further  notice  of  this 
movement,  which  soon  proved  to  be  the  supreme  task  on 
hand  for  the  society  in  these  parts,  let  us  glance  at  twc 
or  three  other  attempts  already  begun,  and  for  quite  2 
period  pushed  forward  with  vigor  and  great  expectation, 
but  ending  in  discouragement  and  practical  failure. 
And  first,  with  regard  to  the  Jews.  Concerning  the  pro- 
posed Palestine  mission  the  Prudential  Committee 
wrote  :  "  We  owe  the  Jews  a  great  debt,  and  they  are 
to  obtain  mercy.  A  disposition  manifested  lately  and 
extensively,  and  recent  successes  among  them,  are  indi- 
cations not  to  be  disregarded.  Our  minds  and  hearts 
have  long  been  drawn  to  Palestine  in  particular."  And, 
as  one  suggests  in  explanation  :  "  The  vision  arose  of  a 
reconquered  Holy  City  and  a  regathering  of  the  chosen 
people.  They  were  to  go  to  Zion,  behold  her  battle- 
ments, and  from  her  towers  get  views  of  the  land  soon 
to  be  possessed  for  the  Son !  "  Again  and  again  the 
missionaries  entered  Jerusalem  purposing  to  remain,  but 
were  compelled  to  withdraw,  and  similar  efforts  were  to 
continue  for  yet  a  decade,  when  the  inevitable  was  ac- 


288  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

cepted,  and  the  field  was  abandoned.  In  1831  Mr. 
Schauffler  was  appointed  to  the  Jewish  mission,  with 
headquarters  at  Constantinople  where  some  seventy-five 
thousand  Spanish  Jews  were  dwelling,  descendants  of 
the  hapless  wretches  who,  expelled  from  Spain  by  Isa- 
bella the  Pious,  and  refused  a  refuge  by  every  Christian 
country,  accepted  the  Sultan's  invitation  to  partake  of 
Moslem  hospitality.  The  Hebrews  were  found  stiff- 
necked  and  uncircumcised  in  heart  and  ears,  but  never- 
theless much  important  work  was  done  until  1846,  espe- 
cially in  the  way  of  translating  and  printing,  when  the 
Scottish  Free  Church  entered  the  field  with  great  zeal 
and  vigor,  and  the  Board  determined  to  retire.  Other 
attempts  of  a  like  character  were  made  at  Smyrna  and 
Salonica,  the  last  one  ending  not  till  1856. 

And  also,  while  in  search  for  the  full  import  of  their 
high  calling,  the  attention  of  the  society  was  directed 
towards  the  Greek  Church  as  an  encouraging  field  for 
sowing  the  good  seed  of  the  kingdom.  The  early  mis- 
sionaries at  Malta,  and  in  the  ^gean,  came  across  cer- 
tain bright  and  promising  youths,  who  were  sent  to  the 
United  States  to  be  educated  mainly  at  the  expense  of 
the  Board,  and  took  a  course  of  study  at  Cornwall,  Am- 
herst  and  Yale.  The  Smyrna  station  was  opened  in 
1826,  because  this  branch  of  the  Oriental  Church  was 
largely  represented  in  that  city.  Soon  after  Grecian  in- 
dependence was  established  Jonas  King  was  located  at 
Athens,  to  open  a  school  and  to  hold  such  religious  serv- 
ices as  seemed  to  be  prudent.  Several  other  men  soon 
followed  and  began  work  in  Argos,  Cyprus,  Scio,  etc. 
But  presently,  both  church  and  state  showed  themselves 
to  be  so  rigidly  intolerant,  and  put  so  many  hindrances 
in  the  way  of  preaching  and  teaching,  that  by  1844  all 


s 

MISSIONS  IN  THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  289 

the  missionaries  had  been  transferred  to  regions  more 
favorable,  except  Mr.  King,  who  remained  until  his 
death  in  1869.  Thus  ended  all  special  effort  in  behalf 
of  the  Greeks.  While  in  the  midst  of  their  struggle  for 
liberty,  much  enthusiasm  had  been  excited  in  their  be- 
half throughout  the  civilized  world,  they  had  eagerly 
sought  sympathy  and  assistance  from  near  and  from  far, 
and  both  had  been  lavishly  bestowed,  but  when  the  hated 
Turk  had  been  effectually  expelled,  their  friends  were 
forgotten,  and  they  desired  to  be  left  wholly  to  them- 
selves. 

We  return  now  to  Mr.  Goodell  and  his  work  among 
the  Armenians.  He  was  not  left  long  to  toil  alone. 
Dwight  was  already  in  the  field,  others  were  added  soon, 
Hamlin  came  in  1839,  and  ere  long  a  noble  company 
of  saints  and  heroes  were  engaged  heart  and  soul.  With 
regard  to  the  body  of  Christians  for  whose  spiritual  re- 
generation they  were  from  henceforth  to  devote  them- 
selves, it  must  suffice  to  suggest,  that  like  the  other  cor- 
rupt churches  of  Western  Asia,  it  is  of  ancient  date,  its 
creed  and  forms  of  worship  were  fixed  in  days  of  theo- 
logical and  ecclesiastical  corruption,  and  through  all  the 
revolutions  and  catastrophes  which  have  since  befallen, 
have  passed  unchanged,  only  lapsing  farther  and  farther 
into  formalism  and  moral  stupor.  They  resemble  Cath- 
olicism in  most  essential  points,  though  while  some  of 
the  branches  are  in  a  somewhat  better  religious  case, 
others  have  departed  even  more  seriously  from  the  New 
Testament  standard.  Two  facts  in  particular  were  of 
great  value  in  helping  on  the  introduction  of  Protestant 
Christianity  among  the  Armenians.  This  people,  wher- 
ever found,  is  possessed  of  unusual  intelligence  and  in- 
tellectual vigor,  and  though  the  Scriptures  were  shut  up 


290  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

from  the  use  of  the  multitude  in  a  language  which  only 
the  ecclesiastics  could  read  or  understand,  their  use  had 
never  been  forbidden,  and  the  teachings  of  prophets, 
apostles,  and  the  Son  of  God,  were  held  in  highest  rev- 
erence. For  some  years  the  work  of  Bible  distribution 
had  been  carried  on  quite  extensively,  and  presently  a 
translation  was  made  in  Armeno-Turkish  which  many 
could  read.  It  was  not  long  before  a  remarkable  spirit 
of  inquiry  appeared,  first  in  Constantinople,  and  later  in 
neighboring  cities  and  towns.  Sin  and  salvation,  re- 
pentance, faith,  and  the  Gospel  rule  of  life,  were  themes 
which  interested  scores  and  hundreds,  and  they  began 
to  call  upon  the  missionaries,  and  to  send  inviting  them 
to  come  and  teach  the  new  and  better  way.  There  was 
no  disposition  to  attack  the  old  church,  or  to  denounce 
its  errors  and  sins,  nor  was  there  any  thought  as  yet  of 
organizing  another  body  of  disciples.  It  was  hoped 
that  the  priesthood  would  be  found  open  to  conviction 
and  would  lead  in  the  work  of  thorough  reform.  By 
1834  Brusa,  sixty  miles  out  in  Bythynia,  was  occupied  as 
a  station,  and  the  same  year  Mr.  Johnston  ventured  off 
as  far  as  Trebizond  to  plant  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
Public  services  were  opened  wherever  possible,  and 
schools  were  started  at  various  points,  in  most  cases  with 
an  attendance  remarkably  large  and  earnest.  So  deep 
and  general  became  the  religious  stir,  that  not  strangely 
the  church  authorities  began  to  take  alarm.  The  people 
in  large  numbers  ceased  to  worship  pictures  and  to  pray 
to  the  saints,  declined  to  come  to  confession,  and  even 
hesitated  not  to  take  their  superiors  to  task  for  departures 
from  the  teachings  cf  Holy  Writ.  The  Catholic  priest- 
hood also,  and  that  of  the  Greek  Church  as  well,  were 
moved  with  a  great  fear.  By  1839  a  furious  crusade  was 


MISSIONS   IN   THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  29 1 

launched  against  these  obnoxious  new  practices,  and 
these  heresies  so  pestiferous. 

It  is  a  peculiar  feature  of  Turkish  rule  that  it  bestows 
a  large  amount  of  civil  authority  upon  the  leading 
official  of  each  recognized  Christian  sect.  Within  cer- 
tain limits  and  under  certain  regulations,  he  is  permitted 
to  inflict  upon  offending  members  of  his  church  the 
pains  and  penalties  of  the  law.  After  months  of  distant 
ominous  mutterings,  in  1839  the  thunder  of  denun- 
ciation and  threatening  began  to  sound  and  to  wax 
louder.  Through  gross  misrepresentations,  and  con- 
tinued appeals,  the  Turkish  authorities  were  prevailed 
upon  to  join  in  a  vigorous  attempt  to  crush  out  the 
evangelical  movement  with  violence,  and  even  to  drive 
1he  troublesome  missionaries  out  of  the  country.  The 
first  onset  towards  a  sharp  persecution  had  already  been 
made,  when  suddenly  the  array  of  the  rebellious  pasha 
of  Egypt  began  its  march  northward,  another  large 
force  was  gathered  in  the  capital  and  sent  forward  to 
meet  the  foe,  a  battle  ensued  which  ended  in  over- 
whelming disaster  to  the  Turks,  before  the  calamitous 
news  arrived  the  Sultan  was  a  corpse,  and  behold,  in  the 
excitement  and  panic,  such  trifles  as  religious  affairs 
were  forgotten,  at  least  for  a  season.  And  as  so  often 
happens,  instead  of  harm,  great  good  came  to  the  cause 
of  reform  from  the  sufferings  and  perils  endured.  In 
spite  of  all,  the  work  rapidly  spread  and  the  number  of 
desciples  increased,  so  that  missionaries  were  located  in 
Nicomedia,  in  Adabazar,  and  in  Erzerum.  To  the 
amazement  of  all,  in  1840  the  new  Sultan  pledged  him- 
self to  secure  religious  liberty  to  all  his  subjects.  It  was 
an  evil  hour  for  despotism  when  that  utterance  was 
made,  though  in  all  probability  it  was  designed  to  mean 


2Q2  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

little  or  nothing.  After  a  few  years  of  quiet,  it  came  to 
pass  that  once  more  the  Armenian  ecclesiastics  were 
filled  with  alarm  over  the  outlook,  and  set  themselves 
with  all  diligence  and  fervor  to  the  task  of  putting  an 
end  forever  to  the  appalling  heresy  and  backsliding. 
First  came  solemn  warning  and  threatening,  and  after- 
wards terrible  bulls  of  anathema  and  excommunication. 
In,  every  community  lists  of  suspected  ones  were  pre- 
pared, the  bastinado  was  applied,  fines,  and  imprison- 
ment, and  banishment  were  inflicted,  business  was  des- 
troyed, all  means  of  securing  a  living  were  cut  off,  and 
to  the  dead  burial  was  refused.  And  to  crown  all,  it  was 
so  in  those  days  that  whoso  claimed  to  be  a  Christian, 
and  did  not  belong  to  some  one  of  the  various  churches 
recognized  by  the  government,  was  an  outlaw,  pos- 
sessed no  civil  rights  whatsoever,  might  be  robbed  and 
wronged  to  any  extent,  and  without  legal  remedy.  And 
such  was  the  very  serious  case  in  which  those  found 
themselves  who  would  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus,  and 
upon  whom  fell  the  blighting  curse  of  the  patriarch.  In 
the  presence  of  these  terrors,  some  paused  appalled  and 
turned  back  to  make  their  peace  with  the  priesthood,  but 
a  much  larger  number  stood  firm  and  could  not  be 
shaken.  In  1846  the  first  Protestant  church  was  organ- 
ized in  Constantinople,  twenty-eight  years  after  Fisk  and 
Parsons  were  set  apart  to  the  Palestine  mission,  and  five 
more  were  formed  in  months  succeeding.  And  mean- 
time the  Sultan  was  petitioned  for  recognition  and  pro- 
tection. By  a  good  providence,  a  most  timely  and 
efficient  instrumentality  was  in  readiness  to  further  this 
indispensable  action.  For  years  Great  Britain  was  rep- 
resented at  the  Porte  by  Sir  Stratford  Canning,  a  diplo- 
mat of  remarkable  energy  and  skill,  and  withal  a  devout 


MISSIONS   IN   THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  393 

and  ardent  Christian.  He  had  already  secured,  in  spite 
of  long  hesitation  and  the  profoundest  unwillingness,  the 
abolition  of  the  death  penalty  for  apostasy  from  the  Mos- 
lem faith — an  achievement  thought  to  approach  to  the 
miraculous — and  presently,  under  his  persistent  urgency, 
a  firman  was  issued  setting  up  in  the  empire  a  new  and 
full-fledged  religious  body,  endowed  with  legal  rights 
equal  to  those  of  any  other.  The  famous  Hatti  Humaioun, 
Magna  Charta  of  religious  liberty  for  Turkey,  was  only 
the  logical  conclusion  for  the  several  steps  which  had 
preceded,  and  from  first  to  last  only  the  severest  political 
pressure  would  have  availed  to  secure  such  radical  yield- 
ing to  Occidental  ideas  and  convictions. 

Being  now  delivered  from  all  entangling  alliances  with 
the  old  church,  the  way  was  fairly  open  for  rapid  and 
solid  progress.  By  1850  it  was  found  that  about  a 
thousand  Christians  had  separated  themselves  from  their 
former  ecclesiastical  associations,  and  some  three  times  as 
many  had  really  adopted  Protestant  sentiments.  In  order 
to  improve  to  the  full  the  great  opportunity,  a  large  in* 
crease  was  speedily  made  to  the  missionary  force,  for  a 
a  hundred  towns  were  reported  as  affected  by  the  refor- 
mation, and  open  for  evangelizing  efforts.  Indeed  a 
wonderful  revival  now  burst  forth,  and  continued  for 
more  than  a  decade,  extending  from  the  Bosphorus  to 
the  Persian  frontier,  whose  equal  for  length,  breadth  and 
depth  has  seldom  if  ever  been  seen  in  mission  fields. 
Within  the  space  of  nine  years  twenty-three  churches 
were  organized  in  centers  of  population  as  important  and 
as  far  apart  as  Aintab,  Mosul,  Diarbekir,  Marsovan, 
Arabkir,  Tocat,  Cesarea,  Aleppo,  Marash,  Sivas,  Har- 
put;  with  Bitlis,  Adrianople,  Adana  and  Van  following 
not  long  after.  Persecution  was  a  thing  largely  of  the 


294  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

past,  though  at  the  beginning  of  work  in  a  new  com- 
munity mobs,  with  insults,  stoning  and  other  similar 
accompaniments,  were  seldom  absent.  Of  course  the 
work  of  translation  and  printing  was  pushed  forward  side 
by  side  with  preaching  tours  and  holding  of  all  manner 
of  public  services,  and  schools  of  various  grades  were 
certain  to  follow  close  upon  the  heels  of  the  evangelist. 
In  particular  the  education  of  girls  was  provided  for  in 
boarding  schools  and  later  in  colleges — a  shocking  inno- 
vation at  first  to  the  Oriental  mind,  but  presently  ac- 
cepted with  resignation,  and  now  by  Turks,  Armenians 
and  all  the  rest  quite  generally  adopted.  Bebek  Sem- 
inary, which  in  a  sense  led  to  Robert  College,  was 
founded  by  Mr.  Hamlin  in  1840,  and  since  four  other 
colleges  have  been  established  at  as  many  strategic 
points.  Three  theological  seminaries  are  training  a 
native  ministry,  whose  graduates  already  approximate  to 
four  hundred.  Nor  is  this  all.  Almost  from  the  be- 
ginning a  resolute  effort  has  been  maintained  looking 
towards  self-support  and  self-management  on  the  part  of 
the  churches,  and  at  the  earliest  possible  day.  The 
people  were  in  desperate  poverty,  and  were  thoroughly 
accustomed  to  being  held  in  leading-strings  or  far  worse; 
but  notwithstanding,  they  must  be  trained  to  independ- 
ence and  self-reliance,  to  build  their  churches  and  school 
houses,  to  support  their  pastors,  to  manage  all  matters  of 
organization,  discipline,  and  other  ecclesiastical  business, 
and  especially  to  bear  the  heavy  burdens  of  spreading 
the  Gospel  throughout  the  community  and  the  regions 
adjacent.  By  1860  the  work  had  become  so  mature,  and 
withal  so  extensive,  that  for  the  sake  of  convenience  and 
economy,  as  well  as  to  increase  the  feeling  of  respon- 
sibility, the  vast  field  began  to  be  divided,  so  that  the 


MISSIONS  IN  THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  29$ 

one  Turkish  Mission  has  become  four,  called  the  East- 
ern, including  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates ; 
the  Central,  lying  about  the  northeastern  corner  of  the 
Mediterranean  ;  the  Western,  covering  the  remainder  of 
Asia  Minor  ;  and  the  European,  or  Bulgarian,  stretching 
upward  towards  the  Danube.  Within  each  mission  is  an 
Evangelical  Union,  a  body  which  plans  and  agitates  in 
behalf  of  aggressive  work  both  home  and  foreign,  organ- 
izes churches,  ordains  and  dismisses  pastors,  etc. 

THE  SYRIAN  MISSION. 

We  have  already  seen  that,  in  looking  towards  West- 
ern Asia  as  a  possible  theater  for  missionary  endeavor, 
the  thoughts  and  desires  of  American  Christians  were 
especially  fastened  upon  the  Holy  Land,  and  upon  the 
Jews,  whose  redemption  and  return  appeared  to  be  at 
hand.  And  that,  disappointed  in  holding  Jerusalem  as 
the  central  station,  as  early  as  1823  Beirut  had  been  ac- 
cepted as  a  temporary  substitute,  though  a  firm  footing 
was  not  gained  there  until  after  1830.  The  languages 
required  were  mastered  in  due  season,  the  Arabic  por- 
tion of  the  Malta  printing  establishment  was  removed  in 
1834  to  this  rising  city  upon  the  eastern  Mediterranean 
coast,  schools  were  opened  for  boys,  and  later  for  girls 
also,  while  to  the  northward  and  southward,  as  well  as 
in  various  villages  scattered  here  and  there  upon  the 
flanks  of  the  great  Lebanon  range,  the  invitations  and 
warnings  of  the  Gospel  began  to  be  heard.  Together 
with  numerous  Armenians,  the  population  includes  such 
nominally  Christian  sects  as  the  Greeks,  Jacobites  and 
Maronites,  and  also  such  strange  religionists  as  the 
Druses  and  the  Nusairiyeh,  who  though  Moslem  in  name, 
are  at  least  semi-pagan  in  fact.  Turkish  is  the  official 


296  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

language,  but  Arabic  is  widely  spoken,  and  Syriac  also. 
No  sooner  had  the  leaven  of  truth  and  righteousness 
begun  to  spread,  than  the  ecclesiastics  proceeded  to  in- 
stitute the  usual  vigorous  and  violent  measures  to  re- 
press the  mischief  threatened  to  the  old  and  established 
way.  While  scores  and  hundreds  for  conscience's  sake 
suffered  in  person  and  estate,  at  least  one,  Asaad 
Shidiak,  a  young  educated  Maronite,  and  teacher  of 
science  and  theology,  was  arrested  and  imprisoned,  and 
is  believed  to  have  been  walled  up  in  a  convent  and  left 
to  starve.  Here  as  in  the  Armenian  mission,  there  was 
no  desire  to  destroy  or  injure  the  existing  organizations, 
but  rather  to  co-operate  and  aid  in  their  work,  only 
agitating  for  needed  religious  reform.  But  this  could 
not  be.  On  account  of  the  dominant  bigotry  and  un- 
willingness to  accept  any  changes,  fellowship  was  out  of 
the  question,  and  after  more  than  two  decades  of  stead- 
fast endeavor  and  patient  waiting,  separation  was  forced 
upon  the  Protestants,  and  in  1848  the  first  native  church 
was  formed  in  Beirut  with  twenty-six  members,  of  whom 
ten  were  Greeks,  four  were  Greek  Catholics,  five  were 
Armenians,  four  were  Maronites,  three  were  Druses,  one 
a  Jacobite  Syrian.  The  mission  suffered  much  from  the 
Egypto-Turkish  war,  and  from  various  armed  strifes  be- 
tween the  several  tribes  and  sects  of  the  region,  in  par- 
ticular during  the  terrible  Druse  massacres  in  1860,  but 
the  Gospel  proved  itself  invincible  and  clothed  with  con- 
quering might.  One  after  another,  companies  of  dis- 
ciples were  gathered  and  joined  in  Christian  fellowship 
and  toil,  in  Hasbeiya,  Abeih,  Sidon,  Tripoli,  Zahleh, 
Hums,  etc.,  etc. 

Without  doubt,  the  one  greatest  achievement  made  by 
the  Syrian  mission  is  to  be  found  in  the  production  o£ 


MISSIONS   IN   THE  TURKISH    EMPIRE.  297 

the  Arabic  Bible,  upon  which  Eli  Smith  expended  eight 
toilsome  years,  and  Dr.  Van  Dyck  as  many  more. 
When  this  noble  task  was  completed  in  1864,  the  vol- 
ume was  printed  by  the  co-operation  of  the  American, 
and  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  and  ever 
since  has  been  scattered  almost  literally  throughout  the 
world.  It  is  now  selling  at  the  rate  of  about  sixty 
thousand  copies  a  year.  And  how  extensive  is  the  pos- 
sible circulation  may  be  seen  by  the  statement  that,  of 
the  earth's  inhabitants  not  far  from  seventy  millions 
speak  Arabic,  and  that  this  is  also  the  language  of  the 
Koran,  the  sacred  book  of  nearly  two  hundred  millions. 
Who  can  begin  to  estimate  the  moral  and  spiritual  value 
of  this  product  of  combined  scholarship  and  mechanical 
skill  in  the  centuries  to  come,  when  the  Church  of 
Christ,  clothed  with  divine  might,  and  with  fitting  zeal, 
enthusiasm  and  vigor,  shall  undertake  to  vanquish  Islam 
with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  which  is  the  Word  of  God, 
everywhere  throughout  Africa,  and  Eastern  Europe,  and 
Southern  Asia  from  Arabia  to  China  and  Malaysia !  And 
next  after  the  Arabic  Bible  must  be  put  the  city  of 
Beirut,  with  its  manifold  institutions  and  establishments, 
as  a  center  and  source  of  power  destined  marvelously  to 
mould  the  entire  Orient.  "  Within  a  radius  of  two  miles 
are  four  Christian  colleges,  seven  female  seminaries, 
sixty  boys'  day  schools,  thirty-one  girls'  schools,  seven- 
teen printing  presses,  and  four  large  hospitals.  The 
boys'  and  girls'  schools  belong  to  the  Protestants, 
Catholics,  Greeks,  Moslems  and  Jews,  and  sixteen  thou- 
sand children  are  under  instruction.  From  the  mis- 
sion presses  alone  nearly  seven  hundred  different  books 
have  been  issued,  and  a  total  of  nearly  seven  hundred 
million  pages.  The  Syrian  Protestant  College,  com- 


298  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

bining  literary,  medical  and  theological  departments, 
ranks  among  the  very  best  to  be  found  on  missionary 
soil,  and  gathers  its  hundreds  of  students  from  many 
nationalities,  and  over  a  vast  region. 

Though  the  Syrian  mission  was  planted  and  long  cared 
for  by  the  American  Board,  in  1870  it  was  transferred  to 
Presbyterian  hands,  and  without  any  important  change 
in  the  spirit  or  methods  of  management,  has  ever  since 
been  vigorously  sustained  with  money  and  men,  and  has 
gone  steadily  on  from  strength  to  strength.  After 
seventy  years  from  the  beginning,  1 1 1  stations  and  out 
stations  are  occupied  by  40  missionaries,  wives  and  un- 
married women  included,  and  193  native  helpers  of  all 
grades ;  the  29  churches  have  a  membership  of  2,410  to- 
gether with  about  6,000  adherents;  and  in  the  106 
schools  of  all  grades  are  found  6,218  pupils,  and  in  the 
college  over  600  more. 

A  large  number  of  societies  have  entered  Palestine  in 
later  years,  and  in  the  aggregate  with  preaching,  house- 
to-house  visiting,  schools,  hospitals,  etc.,  have  accom- 
plished much  towards  the  religious  transformation  of 
this,  perhaps,  most  difficult  and  discouraging  of  mission 
fields.  In  every  town  of  any  considerable  size  are  found 
representatives  of  Protestant  Christianity.  The  English 
Church  Society  is  most  active,  and  is  able  to  tabulate  the 
largest  results.  Entering  in  1843,  work  has  been  under- 
taken in  Jerusalem,  Nazareth,  Nablous,  Ramleh,  Jaffa, 
Gaza,  etc.  The  English  Friends  also  bear  a  portion  of 
the  burden,  as  well  as  the  Irish  Presbyterians,  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  Scotland,  the  Free  Church  and  several 
special,  or  individual  organizations.  And  besides,  char- 
acteristically, the  Moravians  maintain  a  Leper  Hospital 
in  the  Holy  City. 


MISSIONS   IK   THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  £99 

The  northern  portion  of  Syria  is  left  almost  altogether 
to  the  American  Reformed  Presbyterians  (Covenanters), 
with  Latakia  as  the  central  station,  a  seacoast  city  of 
about  15,000,  and  with  work  carried  on  also  at  Antioch 
and  Mersine  in  Asia  Minor.  Since  1856  faith  and  love, 
solicitude  and  untiring  effort  have  been  lavished  mainly 
upon  the  mysterious  Nusairiyeh,  with  religious  beliefs 
and  ceremonies  kept  carefully  concealed  from  the  uniniti- 
ated, who  pass  for  Mohammedans,  but  rank  as  well  with 
pagans.  In  addition  to  all  the  ignorance,  superstition, 
bigotry  and  fanaticism  of  the  people,  through  several 
years  a  succession  of  most  trying  fatalities  befell  from 
disease,  shipwreck  and  the  like.  Nevertheless  these  men 
and  women  of  heroic  mould  held  on  without  flinching 
in  the  darkness  and  tempest.  A  missionary  force  of  20 
is  engaged,  with  56  native  helpers.  Work  is  carried  on 
at  15  points,  the  number  of  churches  is  3,  of  communi 
cants  327,  of  schools  14,  and  of  scholars  715: 

THE  NESTORIAN  MISSION. 

This  interesting  field  is  located  a  thousand  miles  east 
of  Constantinople,  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  Persia, 
or  if  the  mountain  Nestorians  be  included,  extends  also 
into  Turkey.  The  people  from  whom  the  mission  is 
named  are  gathered  largely  about  Lake  Oroomiah  (Ur- 
mia), number  some  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  and 
are  the  feeble  remnant  of  a  famous  Christian  church, 
which  for  centuries  was  unsurpassed  for  evangelizing 
zeal,  and  carried  the  Gospel  not  only  through  all  Central 
Asia,  but  even  to  far  off  India,  and  China.  Under 
Mohammedan  rule  but  little  persecution  was  suffered, 
from  some  of  the  caliphs  substantial  benefits  were  re- 
ceived, but  such  was  the  ruthless  rigor  of  the  rule  of 


300  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OJ    MISSIONS. 

Timour  that,  by  butchery  and  enslavement,  the  organi- 
zation was  brought  so  near  to  annihilation  as  never  to 
recover.  In  their  researches  in  1831-2  Messrs.  Dwight 
and  Smith  visited  this  region,  and  three  years  later,  sent 
by  the  American  Board,  Justin  Perkins  and  wife  made 
their  way  across  the  plains  and  over  the  mountains,  with 
Dr.  Grant  to  follow  in  a  few  months.  A  hearty  welcome 
was  accorded  to  the  strangers  by  both  people  and  priests, 
and  no  very  serious  opposition  was  ever  excited.  Schools 
were  made  the  entering  wedge  to  enlightenment  and  re- 
form, and  met  with  such  favor  that  by  the  end  of  a  de- 
cade the  number  had  risen  to  seventy.  A  printing  press 
was  received  in  1840.  In  1843,  w*tn  many  others  like 
Coan,  Lobdell,  Shedd  and  others,  came  Fidelia  Fiske  to 
push  with  such  fervor  and  efficiency  the  work  among 
women.  So  desperate  was  the  general  poverty  that  at 
first  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  pay  the  children  from 
twelve  to  twenty-five  cents  a  week  for  board,  to  enable 
them  to  attend  school,  and  the  entire  expense  of  the 
mission  in  all  its  departments  fell  upon  the  society. 
Later  however,  a  more  excellent  way  was  discovered,  and 
a  constant  drill  was  instituted  looking  to  self-support. 
Ten  years  passed  away  before  any  notable  signs  of  spiri- 
tual good  appeared,  but  then  began  a  cheering  succession 
of  blessed  seasons  of  refreshing  from  on  high.  Begin- 
ning in  the  schools,  the  work  spread  to  various  commun- 
ities, and  by  the  score  and  hundred  young  and  old  to- 
gether were  brought  to  genuine  repentance  and  a  living 
faith  in  Jesus.  The  hope  was  long  cherished  that  the 
dead  Nestorian  Church  might  be  quickened  again  with 
heavenly  life,  but  though  the  Patriarch  and  the  inferior 
clergy  seldom  displayed  open  hostility  to  the  mission- 
aries and  their  endeavors,  allowed  the  use  of  the  churcJ> 


MISSIONS   IN   THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  30] 

buildings  for  public  services,  and  in  various  other  ways 
displayed  a  spirit  of  fraternity,  at  the  end  of  a  genera- 
tion the  old  body  was  as  lifeless  as  at  the  beginning. 
No  disruption  occurred,  but  the  two  radically  distinct 
parties  gradually  drew  apart  and  went  each  its  own  way. 
Perhaps  more  trouble  resulted  from  impertinent  Roman 
Catholic  meddlesomeness  than  from  any  other  cause. 

The  press  was  kept  busy  turning  out  useful  books  of 
various  kinds,  and  not  only  such  as  were  religious,  but 
those  for  use  in  the  schools,  etc.  In  1852  was  com- 
pleted by  Mr.  Perkins  a  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Syriac.  This  worthy  founder  was  spared  to  continue  in 
the  work  for  thirty-six  years,  or  until  1869,  and  remained 
until  the  light  had  been  kindled  in  nearly  ninety  locali- 
ties, and  until  a  hundred  native  helpers  had  been  trained 
and  set  to  work,  and  upwards  of  nine  hundred  had  been 
helped  to  enter  upon  a  course  of  godly  living.  In  1870 
this  mission,  like  the  one  in  Syria,  was  transferred  to  the 
fostering  care  of  the  Presbyterian  church.  Up  to  that 
date  ^580,000  had  been  expended  upon  it,  or  at  the 
average  annual  rate  of  £15,470.  Since  then  the  pro- 
gress, and  the  territorial  enlargement,  have  been  marked. 
Such  important  cities  as  Teheran,  Ispahan,  Tabriz  and 
Salmas  have  been  occupied  in  the  Master's  name,  and 
the  Armenians  are  joined  to  the  Nestorians  as  objects  of 
evangelizing  effort,  with  a  sharp  lookout  besides  for 
effectual  means  of  access  to  the  Moslem  population. 
The  missionary  force  numbers  267  in  all,  including  17 
ordained  and  29  unordained  Americans;  with  3  or- 
dained, 57  licentiate,  and  215  other  natives.  The 
churches  are  37,  with  3,070  members;  and  the  schools 
are  108,  with  2,429  scholars. 

For  some  thirty-five  years  representatives  of  the  Eng- 


302  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

lish  Church  Missionary  Society  have  been  pioneering  in 
Persia.  Henry  Martyn  may  be  termed  the  first  evangel- 
ist, who  during  his  stay  in  this  country  in  1811  made  a 
translation  of  the  New  Testament.  But  it  was  not  until 
1869  that  Dr.  Bruce  began  to  lay  foundations  for  the 
Gospel  by  locating  himself  in  Julfa,  the  Armenian  sub- 
urb of  Ispahan.  Bagdad  has  since  been  occupied. 
Preaching  to  Moslems  is  scarcely  possible  as  yet,  and  the 
main  reliance  is  upon  medical  and  school  work,  and  the 
sale  of  Bibles.  A  force  of  nine  men  and  sixteen  women 
is  toiling  heroically  and  waiting  for  the  dawn  of  a  better 
day.  The  few  converts  gathered  are  almost  wholly  from 
the  Oriental  churches.  Some  ten  years  since  Bishop 
Stuart  resigned  his  diocese  in  New  Zealand  to  devote  the 
residue  of  his  days  to  toil  in  this  hitherto  barren  field. 

EUROPEAN  TURKEY  MISSION. 

Or  the  mission  to  the  Bulgarians,  for  such  it  is  in  the 
main.  This  people,  though  possessed  of  an  independent 
ecclesiastical  existence,  yet  really  constitutes  a  portion 
of  the  Greek  Church,  and  like  all  its  sister  bodies  is 
filled  with  serious  errors  inherited  from  days  of  darkness. 
The  region  under  view  extends  from  Macedonia  to  the 
Danube,  the  population  is  Slavic  for  the  most  part,  num- 
bers some  five  millions,  and  for  centuries  groaned  under 
Turkish  tyranny.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was 
first  in  the  field,  having  voted  an  appropriation  for  Bul- 
garian work  as  early  as  1852,  and  dispatched  two  repre- 
sentatives in  1857.  The  object  was  not  to  antagonize 
and  proselyte,  but  to  vitalize  arid  reform  the  existing  or- 
ganization. But  the  hierarchy  was  joined  to  its  idols, 
and  was  not  long  in  manifesting  a  decided  disposition  to 
resent  and  resist  with  vigor  any  attempt  to  improve  upon 


MISSIONS   IN   THE   TURKISH   EMPIRE.  303 

the  good  old  ways.  From  various  causes  troublous  times 
were  in  store.  The  effect  of  the  Russo-Turkish  war 
was  disastrous  in  the  extreme.  And  the  vicissitudes  of 
two  decades  are  impressively  set  forth  by  this  quotation 
from  official  sources:  "In  1864  left  without  a  resident 
missionary;  in  1871  abandoned;  in  1873  reoccupied; 
broken  up  in  1877  ;  resumed  in  1879  ;  and  made  a  mis- 
sionary conference  in  1892." 

In  1858  the  American  Board  began  to  organize  ag- 
gressive work  among  the  Bulgarians,  and  chose  as  sta- 
tions Sophia,  Eski  Zagra,  Philippopolis,  Samokov,  Mon- 
astir,  etc.  Some  fifteen  years  were  required  to  lay  foun- 
dations by  learning  the  language,  opening  schools,  pre- 
paring a  literature,  and  gaining  a  knowledge  of  the 
people.  During  1875-8  war,  and  consequent  civil  com- 
motion, made  progress  impossible,  but  since  peace  has 
returned  the  seed  sown  has  steadily  grown,  and  the  be- 
ginnings of  harvest  already  appear.  Robert  College  on 
the  Bosphorus  has  proved  a  most  potent  factor  in  the  re- 
generation of  the  country.  A  theological  school  has 
been  established  for  the  training  of  a  native  ministry,  a 
girls'  boarding  school  also,  and  in  1871  was  completed 
the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  vernacular.  This 
work  is  carried  on  by  28  missionaries,  of  whom  1 1  are 
ordained,  with  28  natives  in  co-operation.  The  com- 
municants number  1,415  and  the  scholars  787. 

In  brief  statement,  such  as  these  are  the  incidents  and 
results  of  missionary  effort  in  Western  Asia  containing  a 
population  of  about  thirty  millions,  of  which  three- 
fourths  are  Mohammedans,  and  the  remainder  represent 
various  Christian  sects,  already  sufficiently  corrupt,  but 
still  further  demoralized  by  the  sufferings  endured  during 


304  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

twelve  centuries  of  Moslem  tyranny  and  hate.  The 
stupendous  task  undertaken  seventy-five  years  ago  is  not 
yet  by  any  means  accomplished,  is  only  just  well  begun. 
Hitherto  toil  has  been  bestowed  almost  exclusively  upon 
nominal  Christians,  and  so  upon  the  minority,  while  the 
even  more  spiritually  needy  majority  has  been  passed  by 
and  let  alone.  The  campaign  thus  far  carried  on  is  to 
be  regarded  as  simply  preliminary,  a  time  of  forging  the 
instrumentalities  required,  of  enlisting  and  drilling  the 
forces,  in  preparation  for  the  divine  signal  to  march,  and 
to  fight  the  decisive  battle  which  shall  effectually  humble 
the  Crescent  and  exalt  the  Cross,  and  bring  all  the  lands 
of  the  Bible  once  more  under  willing  and  blessed  sub- 
jection to  the  Son.  And  with  this  conception  of  things, 
the  outcome  at  this  stage  of  the  work  is  most  remarkable, 
and  not  many  pages  of  missionary  history  can  be  found 
more  cheering  and  fuller  of  inspiration.  It  is  not  in 
vain,  but  rather  to  sublimest  purpose,  that  millions  havq 
been  expended,  and  hundreds  of  consecrated  and  pre- 
cious lives.  As  standing  for  results  of  the  more  palpablq 
kind,  it  will  be  well  to  scan  these  figures.  The  ordained 
missionaries  sent  out  from  Europe  and  America  and  now 
in  the  field  number  139,  and  the  unordained  536 ;  while 
side  by  side  with  these  is  an  even  more  important  com- 
pany  of  210  ordained,  and  about  1,750  unordained  na- 
tives; making  a  total  force  of  2,635.  Then  between  the 
Danube  and  the  Caspian  are  scattered  195  Protestant 
churches  with  a  membership  of  18,500.  In  addition, 
1,000  schools  are  in  operation,  containing  46,500  pupils 
of  every  grade,  of  whom  21,057  are  girls.  In  20  of  the 
31  colleges,  seminaries  and  boarding  schools  for  girls, 
cultured  and  Christian  American  women  are  teaching, 
and  in  ii  the  same  type  of  womanhood  sent  from  British 


MISSIONS   IN   THE  TURKISH   EMPIRE.  305 

homes.  And  finally,  in  spite  of  the  limitless  extortions 
of  the  Turks,  and  the  consequent  almost  universal  pov- 
erty, the  native  contributions  reach  annually  the  goodly 
sum  of  $100,000,  though  the  entire  Protestant  popula- 
tion does  not  exceed  75,000. 

But  statistics  set  forth  not  the  greatest  and  the  best  of 
what  has  been  achieved.  These  general  and  quite  in- 
definite statements,  which  relate  to  the  silent,  unseen, 
but  irresistible  sweep  of  spiritual  forces,  contain  bound- 
less significance  with  reference  to  years  to  come.  In 
every  seaport  from  Trebizond  to  Jaffa,  and  in  every  con- 
siderable city  of  the  empire,  Christian  institutions  have 
been  planted  to  operate  unceasingly  as  the  leaven  or  the 
light.  In  particular,  two  mighty  centers  of  intellectual 
and  religious  energy  have  been  created,  at  Beirut  with  its 
population  of  almost  one  hundred  thousand,  and  at  Con- 
stantinople, the  "eye  of  the  East,"  the  metropolis  of 
the  Mohammedan  world,  hard  by  the  palace  of  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  Prophet,  whose  word  is  sacred  law  to  two 
hundred  millions  !  In  each  of  these  the  two  chief  Bible 
societies  of  Christendom  have  established  their  head- 
quarters, and  their  presses,  from  which  in  all  directions, 
in  'eleven  languages,  and  as  freely  as  the  Koran,  are 
shipped  copies  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  by  the  ton.  Yes, 
and  with  the  imperial  permit  stamped  upon  every  title 
page.  Furthermore,  about  fifteen  hundred  different 
works,  religious,  educational,  scientific,  etc. ,  have  been 
published  and  circulated  far  and  wide  throughout  the 
Orient. 

And  it  may  be  that  the  indirect  and  incidental  re- 
sults of  all  this  multitudinous  preaching,  and  teaching, 
and  praying,  and  printing  through  three-quarters  of  a 
century  outmeasure  and  outweigh  all  the  rest.  It  is  be- 


306  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

yond  dispute  that  the  Turkey  of  to-day  is  vastly  differ- 
ent  from  the  Turkey  of  three  generations  since.  In  such 
matters  even  as  architecture,  and  modes  of  travel,  and 
transportation.  The  railroad,  the  telegraph  and  news- 
paper have  at  least  begun  their  revolutionary  work.  The 
laws  are  more  liberal  and  humane,  and  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  is  more  respectable.  Liberty,  and  whether 
applied  to  thought,  conviction,  or  action,  is  steadily 
coming  to  have  a  larger  and  more  definite  meaning. 
The  old  churches  are  reforming  themselves  at  various 
points,  by  spiritualizing  the  services,  by  mending  the 
morals  and  increasing  the  intelligence  of  the  clergy; 
changing  thus  not  willingly,  but  because  compelled  in 
order  to  maintain  their  place,  and  on  account  of  the  new 
and  higher  standards  set  up  by  the  Protestants.  The 
government  too,  and  from  the  same  sort  of  compulsion, 
as  far  back  as  1869  instituted  a  system  of  graded  schools, 
whose  number  now  approximates  to  twenty  thousand.  So 
the  Ottoman  Empire  from  top  to  bottom,  from  center  to 
circumference,  has  been  tremendously  wrought  upon  of 
late,  and  chiefly  by  the  glorious  company  of  missionaries 
who  have  toiled  and  suffered  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's 
sake,  emulating  the  example  of  the  wisest  and  holiest, 
who  in  ancient  days,  in  the  same  region,  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  same  sacred  task  of  redeeming  the  world  to 
righteousness. 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE  J    KOREA. 

"  BEHOLD,  these  shall  come  from  far ;  and,  lo,  these 
from  the  north  and  from  the  west ;  and  these  from  the 
land  of  Sinim."  The  last  clause  of  this  verse  is  consid- 
ered by  most  scholars  to  refer  to  the  Flowery  Kingdom 
of  eastern  Asia,  that  oldest  of  existing  nations,  whose  his- 
tory begins  some  twenty- two  hundred  years  B.  C.,  fifteen 
hundred  years  before  the  founding  of  Rome,  seven  hun- 
dred years  before  the  date  of  the  Exodus,  and  three  hun- 
dred years  before  the  call  of  Abraham.  Only  two  em- 
pires, the  British  and  the  Russian,  surpass  in  extent  of 
territory  the  dominions  of  the  "  Son  of  Heaven,"  whose 
scepter  bears  sway  over  about  one-tenth  of  the  habitable 
surface  of  the  globe.  India  is  the  only  country  at  all  ap- 
proaching China  in  point  of  population.  Though  the 
number  of  inhabitants  is  by  no  means  certain,  300,000,- 
ooo  appears  to  be  a  minimum  estimate,  some  of  the  best 
authorities  add  one-third  to  this,  and  others  deem  500,- 
000,000  to  be  a  figure  not  too  high.  It  is  necessary 
to  distinguish  between  the  Chinese  Empire,  which  in- 
cludes Tibet,  Mongolia,  Manchuria,  etc.,  covering  in  all 
5,000,000  square  miles,  and  China  Proper,  or  the  Eigh- 
teen Provinces,  whose  area  is  but  about  1,500,000.  Each 
province  answers  somewhat  to  one  of  our  states,  their  aver- 
age size  is  over  80,000  square  miles,  like  our  Kansas  or 
Minnesota,  or  twice  the  size  of  Ohio,  or  Virginia.  The 
average  population  is  more  than  16,000,000,  and  several 

*>! 


308  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

contain  each  upwards  of  35,000,000  inhabitants.  The 
Great  Plain,  situated  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the  em- 
pire, through  which  in  their  lower  courses  flow  the 
two  mighty  streams,  the  Yellow  and  the  Yang-tse',  is 
210,000  miles  in  extent,  contains  some  175,000,000  of 
human  beings,  or  far  more  than  can  elsewhere  be  found 
dwelling  upon  an  area  of  similar  size. 

India  is  the  only  other  mission  field  at  all  compar- 
able with  China  for  either  magnitude,  or  importance,  or 
difficulty.  Almost  every  feature  pertaining  to  the  land 
or  the  people  is  immense,  ponderous,  overwhelming, 
while  much  is  also  strange,  unique,  and  without  anal- 
ogy elsewhere.  Thus  there  is  the  Grand  Canal  six  hun- 
dred miles  in  length,  and  the  Great  Wall  stretching  over 
mountain  and  plain  for  fifteen  hundred  miles,  and  esti- 
mated to  contain  material  sufficient  to  girdle  the  earth 
along  the  equator  with  a  wall  twelve  feet  high  and 
four  feet  thick.  Then  everywhere,  upon  water  as  well 
as  land,  are  met  such  swarms,  and  hordes,  and  myriads 
of  the  queer  creatures,  our  antipodes  in  almost  all  their 
ideas  and  customs.  The  language  is  the  most  difficult 
to  master,  and  appears  to  have  been  fashioned  for  the 
express  purpose  of  effectually  preventing  communication 
between  this  and  other  nations.  Instead  of  an  alpha- 
bet we  find  twenty-five  thousand  hieroglyphic,  or  ideo- 
graphic characters,  each  constituting  a  word.  In  fact, 
one  needs  to  master  three  languages.  Thus  there  is  the 
Wen-li  for  exclusive  literary  use,  to  be  seen  and  not 
heard,  not  to  be  spoken  but  only  to  be  read  ;  and  the 
easy  Wen-li,  similar  to  the  other,  only  simpler,  less 
stilted ;  and  the  mandarin,  or  court  language,  and  spoken 
extensively  in  the  northern  and  central  provinces.  Al- 
though ability  to  read,  that  is  to  pronounce  the  words. 


THE  CHINESE   EMPIRE;    KOREA.  309 

is  a  very  common  attainment  in  China,  it  is  yet  asserted 
by  competent  authority  that  the  number  of  those  who  can 
understand  what  they  read  is  not  more  than  ten  per  cent, 
of  the  men,  and  one  per  cent,  of  the  women.  Still 
further,  in  the  empire  of  the  Celestials  three  religions 
dwell  harmoniously  side  by  side,  and  not  seldom  in  the 
same  mind  and  heart.  The  writings  of  Confucius  are  the 
source  of  supply  for  the  rulers  and  the  literati,  with  his 
five  relations  leading  to  the  five  supreme  duties. 
Taouism  is  the  second  form  of  religious  faith  and  prac- 
tice, originating  with  Lao-tse  about  the  same  time  as  the 
former,  or  in  the  century  in  which  the  Jews  returned 
from  Babylon.  Not  satisfied  with  the  conclusions  of 
either  or  both  of  these  philosophers,  in  the  year  65  A. 
D.  Emperor  Ming-ti  sent  an  embassy  to  India  in  search 
of  something  better,  and  thus  Buddhism  made  its  ad- 
vent into  China.  The  real  religion  of  the  Chinese  is  to 
be  found  in  the  worship  of  ancestors,  in  the  rites  per- 
formed before  the  tablet  at  the  family  shrine,  and  ad- 
dressed to  the  "  two  living  divinities."  Every  April  re- 
turns the  annual  general  celebration  of  these  rites.  The 
members  of  the  family  assemble  from  near  and  from  far ; 
at  the  graves  libations  are  poured  out  and  paper  is 
burned,  and  then  follows  a  social  feast  attended  with 
certain  petitions  and  prostrations.  There  is  no  religious 
caste,  and  no  ruling  priesthood.  The  average  Chinese 
mind  is  filled  to  overflowing  with  the  grossest  of  super- 
stitions relating  to  luck,  the  dragon  and  the  tiger,  the 
two  principles  Yang  and  Yin,  the  Fung-shui,  or  wind- 
and-water.  Gongs  are  in  great  use  to  frighten  away  the 
multitude  of  ghosts. 

With  three  religions  already  on  hand,  when  Moham- 
medanism arose,  and  its  adherents  entered  the  empire  to 


3IO  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

make  proselytes,  so  hospitably  were  they  received,  and 
so  excellent  did  their  message  sound  that  a  strong  and 
lasting  foothold  was  gained,  and  30,000,000  are  said  to 
be  found  to-day  among  the  inhabitants  Oi  the  western 
provinces.  Four  separate  attempts  have  been  made  to 
introduce  the  Gospel.  First  came  the  Nestorians  early 
in  the  sixth  century,  entering  from  the  west  and  pushing 
resolutely  across  the  vast  spaces  of  desert  and  lofty 
mountain  ranges.  Little  is  known  in  detail  of  their 
achievements,  but  they  appear  to  have  made  a  multitude 
of  disciples,  and  then  to  have  lost  their  influence.  No 
visible  trace  of  their  presence  remains  except  the  famous 
tablet  at  Si-ngan  in  Shansi,  bearing  the  date  781  A.  D., 
and  in  Chinese  and  Syriac  characters  telling  something 
of  the  triumphs  of  the  Cross  which  thereabouts  had  been 
wrought.  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  first  made  their 
appearance  in  the  Flowery  Land  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, entering  also  from  the  west  and  by  the  overland 
route.  Quite  an  impression  was  made,  and  then  set  in  a 
decline.  The  burning  zeal  of  Xavier  had  been  turned 
towards  this  populous  region  as  a  fit  field  for  his  labors, 
but  death  defeated  his  plans  for  evangelization.  In  1580 
Valignani,  the  Superior  of  Jesuit  missions  in  the  far 
East,  selected  Matteo  Ricci  and  others,  and  sent  them 
from  Macao  to  push  their  way  into  the  interior,  to  make 
to  the  perishing  the  proclamation  of  the  way  of  life. 
They  were  clad  in  the  garb  of  Buddhist  priests,  though 
later  this  was  exchanged  for  the  dress  of  the  literati. 
Baffled  again  and  again,  but  never  despairing,  after 
twenty-one  years  he  was  able  to  gain  a  lodgment  in 
Peking,  and  soon  success  began  to  crown  his  efforts. 
For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  great  activity  was  dis- 
played and  converts  were  made  by  the  hundred  thou- 


THE  CHINESE   EMPIRE;    KOREA.  $11 

sand.  But  the  brethren,  some  of  whom  were  Bene- 
dictines and  Franciscans  as  well  as  Jesuits,  fell  to 
quarreling  among  themselves,  and  appealed  too  often  to 
the  Pope ;  moreover,  on  all  occasions  carried  themselves 
too  haughtily,  and  were  persistent  meddlers  in  matters 
political.  And  so  after  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  an 
edict  of  expulsion  was  issued  and  a  long  period  of  severe 
persecution  ensued.  This  occurred  in  1736,  and  ever 
since  Catholics  have  been  feared  and  hated. 

The  fact  should  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  ex- 
clusiveness  of  the  Chinese,  their  determined  policy  of 
absolute  non-intercourse  with  all  other  peoples,  and 
especially  with  Occidentals,  does  not  originate  wholly  in 
total  depravity,  or  even  in  insane  conceit,  coupled  with 
folly  equally  insane,  and  was  adopted  by  the  rulers  only 
in  times  comparatively  modern.  The  land  is  isolated  by 
nature,  is  fenced  in  on  every  side  by  barriers,  the  ocean, 
the  mountains,  the  deserts,  which  a  few  generations  ago 
were  practically  impassable.  But  when  after  the  doubling 
of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  intercourse  was  first  opened 
with  Europeans,  the  ports  were  open,  no  great  prejudice 
was  displayed,  and  trade  was  carried  on  with  little 
difficulty.  The  case  was  somewhat  changed  after  the 
conquest  of  the  empire  by  the  Manchus  in  1644.  But 
the  outrageous  behavior  of  the  traders,  who  had  no  sort 
of  regard  for  the  rights  of  others,  who  scrupled  not  to 
deal  with  this  highly  civilized  people  as  they  would  with 
savage  African  negroes,  or  American  aborigines,  must  be 
regarded  as  the  chief  cause  of  the  barriers  which  were 
afterwards  reared.  The  Chinese  who  resorted  to  the 
Philippines  to  trade  were  treated  by  the  Spaniards  with 
peculiar  severity.  And  moreover  it  was  known  what  had 
befallen  other  nations  in  Southern  Asia  who  had  allowed 


313  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

Europeans  to  land  and  open  factories.  It  was  largely 
through  mortal  fear  of  invasion  and  conquest  that  it  was 
decided  at  length  to  close  and  bar  every  gate.  The 
Portuguese  had  taken  forcible  possession  of  the  peninsula 
on  which  Macao  stands,  but  a  wall  was  built  across  the 
narrow  neck  that  joined  it  to  the  mainland,  and  a  guard 
was  kept  to  prevent  egress  or  entrance.  All  trade  with 
foreigners  was  to  be  confined  strictly  to  Canton,  and  to 
a  tract  of  fifteen  acres  outside  the  walls.  Certain  « '  hong-' ' 
merchants  were  constituted  the  sole  intermediaries  be- 
tween the  empire  and  the  whole  world.  Only  through 
these  thirteen  could  any  sort  of  communication  be  had 
with  the  emperor,  or  with  any  official  of  the  government. 
It  was  a  capital  offence  to  teach  the  language  to  any 
"outside  barbarian,"  alias,  "foreign  devil."  Of 
course,  the  attempt  was  absurd,  preposterous,  and  from 
the  beginning  was  doomed  to  failure.  It  was  the  des- 
perate expedient  of  conscious  weakness,  combined  with 
amazing  assumption  of  superiority.  All  British  com- 
mercial transactions  were  then  in  the  hands  of  the  East 
India  Company. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  this  century  opened;  mis- 
sionary zeal  was  rapidly  rising  and  spreading,  and  the 
gaze  of  many  earnest-hearted  ones  was  fixed  on  the  dis- 
tant lands  of  darkness,  with  longings  to  bear  thither  the 
blessed  light  of  life.  The  London  Society  was  the  first 
one  to  move  China- ward,  and  selected  Robert  Morrison 
to  be  its  pioneer,  knowing  full  well  the  magnitude  of  the 
undertaking.  The  instructions  given  him  at  his  depart- 
ure help  us  to  perceive  how  purely  it  was  an  act  of  faith. 
The  directors  say :  "  We  trust  that  no  objection  will  be 
made  to  your  continuing  in  Canton  till  you  have  accom- 
plished your  great  object  of  acquiring  the  language; 


THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE;    KOREA.  313 

when  this  is  done  you  may  probably  soon  afterwards  be- 
gin to  turn  this  attainment  into  a  direction  which  may 
be  of  extensive  use  to  the  world ;  perhaps  you  may  have 
the  honor  of  forming  a  Chinese  dictionary,  more  com- 
prehensive and  correct  than  any  preceding  one,  or  the 
still  greater  honor  of  translating  the  sacred  Scriptures 
into  a  language  spoken  by  a  third  of  the  human  race." 
Applying  to  the  East  India  Company  for  a  passage  in  one 
of  its  ships,  he  was  refused,  as  Carey  had  been  a  few 
years  before,  and  it  became  necessary  to  voyage  via  New 
York.  And  there  it  was,  that  after  all  the  business  ar- 
rangements had  been  completed,  and  he  was  about  to 
leave  the  shipping  office,  the  agent  wheeled  in  his  chair 
and  with  a  look  and  tone  of  superior  wisdom  remarked : 
• '  So  then,  Mr.  Morrison,  you  really  expect  to  make  an 
/repression  on  the  idolatry  of  the  great  Chinese  Em- 
pire?" And  quickly  replied  with  emphasis  this  first 
missionary  to  the  Middle  Kingdom,  with  its  hundreds  of 
millions,  and  utterly  closed  against  all  foreigners :  "  No, 
sir,  but  I  expect  that  God  will."  Nine  months  later  he 
arrived  at  his  destination  and  sat  down  before  the  huge 
fortress  apparently  so  impregnable.  Macao  was  his  first 
halting  place,  and  as  soon  as  possible  he  secured  a  Chi- 
naman to  teach  him  the  language,  and  gave  himself  to 
the  arduous  task  with  all  his  might.  Such  was  his  eag- 
erness to  make  progress  that  he  is  said  to  have  begun 
almost  at  once  to  offer  up  his  secret  prayers  in  broken 
Chinese.  This  city  was  so  intensely  and  intolerantly 
Catholic  that  prudence  seemed  to  require  that  the  object 
of  his  coming  should  be  concealed,  and  that  so  far  as 
possible  his  presence  should  not  be  known.  Disguised, 
in  Chinese  clothing  he  also  kept  carefully  within  doors, 
only  when  his  health  suffered  seriously  from  such  con- 


314  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

finement  did  he  venture  forth,  and  then  only  at  night  to 
the  fields  outside  the  city  with  Chinese  attendants. 
Later  Canton  became  his  headquarters,  and  he  soon 
found  several  good  friends  among  the  foreign  residents, 
and  a  few  from  among  the  Company's  servants.  So  ex- 
cellent were  his  linguistic  abilities,  so  intense  was  his 
application,  and  so  rare  were  men  possessed  of  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  language  sufficiently  accurate  and  ample, 
that  at  the  end  of  two  years  his  services  were  sought  by 
the  Company  as  translator  at  a  salary  of  $2,500,  and 
later  increased  to  $6,000.  And  thus  it  curiously  came 
to  pass,  as  in  Carey's  case,  that  the  corporation  whose 
spirit  was  so  utterly  sordid  and  antichristian,  which  had 
refused  its  consent  to  his  coming,  from  this  time  forward 
to  the  end  of  his  life  enabled  him  to  remain  upon  Chi- 
nese soil,  and  supplied  in  abundance  the  means  to  carry 
on  his  work. 

Only  a  portion  of  his  time  being  required  for  the  per. 
formance  of  his  official  duties,  Morrison  was  able  to  un- 
dertake the  translation  of  the  Scriptures.  Ere  long  the 
Acts  were  ready  for  printing,  Luke  was  next  completed, 
and  by  1813  tne  entire  New  Testament  was  issued  from 
the  press,  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  dona- 
ting large  sums  in  aid  of  the  momentous  undertaking. 
Five  years  later  the  Bible  was  published  complete  in 
Chinese.  During  the  same  period  the  same  busy  pen 
was  actively  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  both  a  gram- 
mar and  a  dictionary.  The  latter  was  a  great  work  in 
six  volumes,  and  was  so  highly  esteemed  that  the  entire 
expense  of  printing,  some  $60,000,  was  met  by  the 
Company.  But  nevertheless,  the  calling  of  the  author 
was  not  that  of  a  man  of  letters.  From  first  to  last,  in 
heart  and  soul,  it  was  the  missionary  who  thus  expended 


THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE;   KOREA.  315 

his  energies,  and  all  was  done  for  the  kingdom's  sake, 
that  the  Gospel  might  be  introduced  into  China.  There- 
fore, though  public  services  were  impossible  even  in 
Macao,  regularly  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
with  the  greatest  circumspection,  in  the  privacy  of  his 
own  room,  and  behind  bolted  doors,  a  few,  only  two  or 
three  usually,  were  met  for  prayer  and  instruction.  Six 
years  passed  without  a  companion  or  helper  in  burden- 
bearing,  and  then  the  London  Society  sent  out  Mr. 
Milne  as  associate.  Landing  at  Macao,  in  a  few  days 
the  governor  issued  a  peremptory  order  for  him  to  leave 
the  city.  Repairing  to  Canton,  it  soon  became  apparent 
that  there  was  no  room  for  him  in  China,  and  for  reasons 
soon  to  be  mentioned,  he  took  his  departure  for  other 
countries,  carrying  with  him  for  circulation  two  thousand 
New  Testaments,  five  thousand  copies  of  a  catechism 
which  Morrison  had  prepared,  and  ten  thousand  copies 
of  a  tract,  all  in  Chinese.  Meantime  an  imperial  edict 
had  been  issued  strictly  forbidding  the  printing  of  reli- 
gious books,  and  to  the  pagan  manifesto  was  added  a 
"  Christian"  one,  from  the  chief  ecclesiastic  at  Macao, 
hurling  anathemas  against  whoso  should  hold  intercourse 
with  the  heretic  Morrison,  or  receive  his  pestiferous  lit- 
erature, or  supply  him  with  Chinese  works.  He  was 
also  sharply  reproved  and  warned  by  the  Company  that 
he  was  committing  a  grave  offence  by  publishing  the 
New  Testament  and  religious  tracts,  and  to  the  serious 
jeopardizing  of  British  trade  in  the  empire.  But  as  an 
offset,  as  a  grain  of  comfort  in  the  midst  of  sore  tribula- 
tion, in  1814  he  was  permitted  to  baptize  his  first  con- 
vert, Tsai  A-ko,  who  lived  four  years  to  honor  his  pro- 
fession. Many  days  of  wearisome  waiting,  however, 
were  yet  in  store. 


316  A   HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

"O,  Rock,  Rock,  when  wilt  thou  open! "  had  been 
the  exclamation  of  Valignani  almost  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  before,  and  the  wall  of  exclusion  was  even 
more  impassable  than  then.  Those  who  would  enter 
must  still  remain  outside,  and  wait,  and  pray.  Deter- 
mined not  to  despair  or  give  over,  and  reduced  to  such 
extremities,  while  pushing  to  the  utmost  the  important 
preparatory  work  of  translating  and  printing,  it  seemed 
possible  to  bestow  evangelizing  labor  upon  certain  natives 
to  be  found  outside  the  bounds  of  the  empire,  and  thus 
through  them,  in  spite  of  edicts,  introduce  Christian 
teachers  and  books  among  the  teeming  millions.  For  it 
had  been  observed  that  a  great  tide  of  emigration  was 
setting  towards  the  south,  and  thousands  of  Chinamen 
were  already  thickly  scattered  throughout  the  Malay 
Peninsula  and  the  Dutch  East  Indies.  And  so,  curiously 
it  came  to  pass  that  for  some  thirty  years  almost  all  efforts 
to  redeem  the  Celestial  Empire  were  put  forth  hundreds 
of  miles  away.  It  was  to  further  this  design  that  Mr. 
Milne  turned  his  back  upon  Canton,  and  left  Morrison 
once  more  alone.  After  a  long  tour  of  exploration,  he 
finally  fixed  himself  in  Malacca,  and  with  others  who 
joined  him  began  to  preach  and  teach  the  things  of  the 
kingdom.  Among  the  rest,  a  school  was  opened  which 
developed  into  the  famous  Anglo-Chinese  College,  de- 
signed to  impart  to  missionaries  and  others  a  knowledge 
of  Chinese,  and  to  the  natives  a  knowledge  of  English. 
Penang  and  Singapore  were  occupied  by  several  socie- 
ties, Java  also  and  Siam,  the  London  Society,  the  Ameri- 
can Board  and  the  Presbyterians,  being  especially  active. 
The  task  was  an  uphill  one ;  it  was  entered  upon  merely 
as  a  make-shift,  and  nothing  very  substantial  or  enduring 
ever  came  of  it.  These  results  may  be  named.  Between 


THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE;    KOREA.  317 

1815  and  1842,  when  this  phase  of  the  work  came  almost 
wholly  to  an  end,  it  is  estimated  by  Mr.  Medhurst,  an 
active  participant,  that  ten  thousand  children  passed 
through  the  various  schools,  about  one  hundred  were 
baptized,  and  several  native  preachers  were  trained, 
among  them  Liang  A-fah,  baptized  by  Milne  in  1816, 
who  till  his  death  in  1855  was  exceedingly  useful. 

A  second  temporary  and  provisional  line  of  endeavor 
was  resorted  to  during  these  discouraging  times  of  trying 
to  reach  China  while  standing  on  the  outside  and  off  at 
arm's  length.  A  noble  and  gifted  company  of  men  like 
Morrison,  Milne,  Medhurst,  Gutzlaff  and  others  were 
6usy  with  pen  and  press  furnishing  a  supply  of  religious 
literature,  as  well  as  other  useful  reading  matter.  And 
in  the  thirties  the  peculiar  project  was  formed  of  defying 
to  a  certain  extent  the  laws  which  forbade  any  inter- 
course with  the  people  or  touching  of  the  sacred  soil, 
and  of  making  expeditions  up  and  down  the  coast,  so 
indented  with  bays,  harbors  and  wide-mouthed  streams, 
carrying  a  liberal  supply  of  books,  tracts,  etc.,  landing 
wherever  possible,  and  giving  to  all  who  would  receive. 
The  scheme  evidently  belongs  to  the  order  of  the  for- 
lorn hope,  and  the  last  resort  in  the  day  of  extremity, 
but  was  more  rational  in  this  case  because  it  was  under- 
stood to  be  a  national  trait  to  hold  all  printed  paper  in 
highest  esteem.  Gutzlaff  made  three  entensive  voyages 
in  successive  years,  and  Medhurst,  with  a  companion, 
one  covering  several  months.  In  the  main  the  inhabi- 
tants were  found  to  be  good-natured  and  approachable, 
instead  of  misanthropic  and  hostile  as  had  been  antici- 
pated, though  the  mandarins  usually  ordered  them  off 
sternly,  though  without  violence,  or  much  insult  even. 
So  hopeful  for  a  season  was  the  outlook  in  this  direction, 


318  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

that  Olyphant  and  Co.,  American  merchants  of  Canton, 
devout  Christians  and  friends  of  missions  in  addition, 
purchased  a  vessel  to  be  used  in  these  colportage  expe- 
ditions. Besides,  Liang  A-fah,  who  had  returned  from 
the  Straits'  Settlements,  and  in  1824  had  been  ordained 
by  Morrison,  the  first  Chinaman  to  enter  the  Christian 
ministry,  invaded  Canton  with  religious  books  which  he 
distributed  in  great  numbers,  especially  to  students  who 
came  to  the  city  to  take  their  examinations.  But  the 
authorities  were  soon  in  pursuit  of  him  and  his  assistants 
on  suspicion  that  they  were  in  treasonable  intercourse 
and  league  with  the  outside  barbarians  plotting  the  de- 
struction of  the  empire ;  two  were  seized  and  severely 
beaten,  and  he  was  compelled  to  flee  precipitately  for  his 
life.  In  all  some  fifty  thousand  volumes  were  placed  in 
Celestial  hands  along  the  coast,  and  about  twice  as  many 
in  and  around  Canton  and  Macao.  The  only  traceable 
results  are  found  in  the  fact  that  a  multitude  were  helped 
to  a  better  feeling  towards  foreigners,  having  discovered 
that  the  "  foreign  devil "  was  not  nearly  so  black  as  he 
had  been  painted,  and  over  against  this,  the' other  fact 
that  it  appeared  to  be  certain  that,  if  missionaries  could 
only  enter  the  country,  they  would  be  fairly  well  re- 
ceived. And  further,  the  publishing  of  Gutzlaff's  Voy- 
ages excited  wide-spread  interest  and  enthusiasm. 

Recourse  was  had  to  yet  another  indirect  mode  of 
operations,  which  almost  at  once  showed  itself  to  be  an 
auxiliary  to  the  Gospel  most  potent  and  of  the  greatest 
value,  has  continued  to  the  present,  and  constitutes  one 
of  the  marked  features  of  evangelizing  work  in  China. 
Gutzlaff  was  possessed  of  some  knowledge  of  the  heal- 
ing art,  and  had  ministered  to  many  sick  while  playing 
the  part  of  colporteur.  But  years  before,  in  1820,  Mor- 


THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE;    KOREA.  319 

rison  with  Dr.  Livingstone,  one  of  the  Company's  serv- 
ants, had  begun  to  dispense  medicines  at  Macao,  and  in 
1827  Dr.  Colledge  had  opened  a  dispensary  at  his  own 
expense,  though  later  the  foreign  population  had  con- 
tributed $6,500  to  sustain  it.  However,  the  real  father 
of  medical  missions  is  Dr.  Peter  Parker,  who  in  1836 
opened  a  hospital  in  Canton  for  the  gratuitous  treatment 
of  the  suffering,  with  opthalmic  and  surgical  cases  as 
specialties.  A  great  sensation  was  soon  produced  by  his 
successful  operations  and  remarkable  cures.  Howqua, 
the  leading  hong-merchant,  hearing  of  the  wonder,  gave 
the  free  use  of  his  building  for  years,  though  character- 
istically, suspecting  that  back  of  the  seeming  benevolence 
some  selfish  plot  was  concealed,  he  sent  one  of  his  clerks 
to  keep  an  open  eye  on  the  proceedings.  A  medical 
society  was  formed  to  agitate  for  hospitals  in  other  cities, 
and  a  few  years  later,  in  England  and  America,  Dr.  Parker 
made  many  and  effectual  appeals  for  the  training  and 
sending  out  of  missionaries  able  to  minister  to  the  bodies 
of  men  whom  they  would  rescue  from  the  plague  of  sin. 
As  might  have  been  expected,  and  especially  in  China 
where  so  much  needed,  this  instrumentality  has  been 
found  scarcely  second  to  any,  for  disarming  bitter  preju- 
dice, and  exciting  confidence  and  esteem.  No  man  can 
tell  what  the  Gospel  owes  to  the  distinguished  services 
performed  in  behalf  of  the  wife  of  Li  Hung  Chang  by 
Drs.  Mackenzie  and  Howard.  In  addition  to  numerous 
hospitals,  dispensaries,  and  medical  schools,  gifted  physi- 
cians like  Hobson  and  Kerr  have  written  some  fifty 
medical  volumes  for  the  instruction  of  the  common 
people  in  matters  of  health,  and  whose  circulation  has 
been  very  great.  At  no  other  point  can  foreigners  so 
easily  and  effectually  demonstrate  their  superiority  to  the 


320  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

very  wisest  of  the  high-minded  sons  of  Confucius.  The 
eminent  statesman  just  named  is  said  to  have  expressed 
himself  to  this  effect:  "  We  Chinese  think  we  can  take 
care  of  our  souls  well  enough ;  but  evidently  you  can 
take  care  of  our  bodies  better  than  we,  so  send  us  medi- 
cal missionaries  in  abundance."  And  wealthy  officials 
and  merchants  gladly  contributed  large  sums  every  year 
to  sustain  this  Good  Samaritan  feature  of  Christian  effort. 
Korea  is  said  to  have  been  opened  to  Europeans  by  the 
point  of  the  lancet,  but  as  for  China,  to  accomplish  this 
herculean  task  it  was  necessary  to  employ  the  terrible 
edge  of  the  sword.  The  barriers  would  yield  to  nothing 
?ess  violent  than  the  savage  and  brutal  assault  of  cannon. 
Morrison  had  toiled  on  and  on,  year  after  year,  with 
none  at  hand  to  sympathize  or  help.  Well -may  Dr. 
Milne  say  that  ' '  the  patience  that  refuses  to  be  con- 
quered, the  diligence  that  never  tires,  the  caution  that 
hides,  and  the  studious  habit  that  spontaneously  seeks 
retirement,  were  best  adapted  for  the  first  Protestant 
missionary  to  China."  It  was  not  until  1839  that  Bridg- 
man,  of  the  American  Board,  came  to  his  assistance,  to 
be  joined  four  years  later  by  Wells  Williams.  And  in 
1834  he  died,  worn  out  with  toil  and  hope  deferred.  In 
all  the  twenty-seven  years  of  maintaining  the  siege  of  the 
stronghold  of  Satan,  he  had  never  been  able  to  hold  a 
public  service,  and  had  seen  but  three  or  four  touched  by 
the  renewing  power  of  the  Spirit.  But  he  died  in  full 
faith  nevertheless.  These  words  are  found  in  the  last 
letter  he  ever  wrote :  "I  wait  patiently  the  events  to  be 
developed  in  the  course  of  divine  providence.  The 
Lord  reigneth.  If  the  command  of  God  our  Saviour 
prosper  in  China,  all  will  be  well.  Other  matters  are 
comparatively  of  small  importance."  Eight  years  more 


THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE;    KOREA.  38! 

were  destined  to  elapse,  and  then  the  great  wall  of  ex- 
clusion was  to  begin  to  crumble  and  fall.  And  the 
famous  "  Opium  War  "  with  Great  Britain  was  to  supply 
the  shock  required.  Though  the  common  idea  is  very 
different,  the  truth  appears  clearly  to  be,  that  the  de- 
termination to  continue  the  opium  trade  was  in  no 
proper  sense  the  cause,  was  at  the  most  but  the  occasion, 
of  the  bloody  strife,  was  only  the  accidental  spark  that 
fired  the  magazine.  For  the  cause  we  must  go  further 
back,  and  take  a  broader  view  of  the  situation,  and  it  is 
to  be  found  in  the  outrageous  restrictions  put  upon  com- 
merce by  the  Chinese  authorities,  prompted  in  part  by 
fear,  and  also  in  no  small  degree  by  a  limitless  conceit 
and  arrogance,  and  these  leading  to  intolerable  methods 
of  dealing  with  foreigners.  There  is  but  little  to  be  said 
in  commendation  of  the  designs  and  disposition  of 
either  party.  To  aggravate  the  trouble,  it  was  Occi- 
dental face  to  face  with  Oriental,  with  no  language  by 
which  to  communicate,  so  that  endless  misunderstandings 
could  not  but  occur.  Here,  therefore,  was  one  of  the 
offences  which  must  needs  come,  when  the  stronger  and 
the  weaker  fall  into  conflict,  though  wo  be  to  him 
through  whom  the  offence  cometh.  The  childish  policy 
of  communicating  with  the  outside  world  only  by  means 
of  petitions  offered  through  the  hong-merchants,  utterly 
shut  out  from  access  to  the  central  authorities,  and  com- 
pelled to  take  the  attitude  of  a  suppliant  inferior,  was 
bad  enough  from  the  beginning,  but  might  possibly 
answer  for  a  commercial  corporation.  But  when  in  1834 
the  East  India  Company  was  set  aside,  and  the  British 
Government  took  the  direction  of  trade  into  its  own 
hands,  of  course  such  servility  and  cringing  were  out 
of  the  question.  Lord  Napier  was  despatched  as  com* 


322  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

missioner,  and  proceeded  straight  to  Canton,  and  sent 
his  credentials  to  the  viceroy  direct.  They  were  re- 
turned unopened,  with  a  rebuke  to  his  presumption,  and 
an  order  to  return  to  Macao  "  immediately  with  speed." 
Various  other  outrages  succeeded,  culminating  in  1839 
in  the  command  to  deliver  up  all  the  opium  in  the  hands 
of  English  dealers,  and  the  imprisonment  of  the  entire 
European  population  for  days,  with  great  indignities  at- 
tending. Naturally  war  ensued,  ending  in  1842  in  the 
treaty  of  Nanking,  which  opened  five  ports  of  the 
empire  to  residence  and  trade,  and  gave  to  Great 
Britain,  besides,  the  island  of  Hongkong  for  a  pos- 
session. Opium  was  admitted  free,  but  only  as  all  com- 
merce was  free.  Here  ends  the  first  stage  of  missionary 
history  in  China. 

Unfortunate  and  lamentable  though  it  be,  and  scan- 
dalous in  some  of  its  phases,  this  transaction  is  to  be 
classed  among  the  great  events  in  the  spread  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  among  the  nations.  The  wrath  of 
man,  and  his  folly,  and  his  weakness  also,  played  a  lead- 
ing part,  but  the  Lord  made  them  effectually  to  praise 
Him.  And  to  China,  though  she  knew  it  not,  and 
neither  yet  is  the  fact  discerned,  accrued  the  lion's 
share  of  the  priceless  benefits  resulting  from  the  destruc- 
tive clash  of  arms.  The  deepest  humiliation  and 
chagrin,  with  the  addition  of  $21,000,000  in  cash,  were 
not  too  great  a  price  to  pay.  Up  to  this  time  about 
sixty  missionaries  had  been  sent  out  by  the  various 
churches  of  Christendom  for  the  evangelization  of  China, 
though  only  three  or  four  had  found  it  profitable  to  work 
and  wait  upon  the  immediate  borders  of  the  land.  The 
remainder,  at  a  distance,  had  been  making  ready  for  the 
fulness  of  times  to  dawn.  Only  the  London  Society  and 


THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE;    KOREA.  323 

the  American  Board  were  represented  in  the  field  at  the 
very  gates  of  the  fortress.  But  no  sooner  had  the  treaty 
been  signed  and  the  six  cities,  Canton,  Hongkong, 
Amoy,  Foochow,  Ningpo  and  Shanghai,  been  thrown 
open,  than  a  sudden  and  extensive  enlargement  was 
made.  Almost  at  once  the  American  Episcopalians, 
Baptists,  and  Presbyterians,  came  flocking  in  from 
Singapore  and  the  region  around  about,  where  they  had 
been  sojourning,  and  many  other  societies  hastened 
forward  their  quota  of  laborers  to  occupy  the  long 
coveted  region,  six  of  them  in  a  single  year,  so  that  by 
1848  instead  of  two  organizations  represented  in  the 
Flowery  Kingdom,  there  were  fifteen,  with  yet  more 
soon  to  follow.  The  statistics  for  1853  showed  the 
presence  of  118  missionaries,  of  whom  69  were  ordained 
and  40  were  women,  with  29  native  helpers.  But  at  the 
same  date,  though  forty-six  years  had  elapsed  since 
Morrison  arrived,  the  churches  numbered  only  5  with 
351  members,  and  the  schools  32  with  812  pupils. 
Upon  no  other  country  had  so  much  toil  been  expended 
for  so  long  a  period,  with  such  slight  return  in  converts 
gathered.  Entering  now  the  treaty  ports,  access  was 
had  to  some  two  or  three  millions,  but  with  minds  and 
hearts  fast  closed  by  the  increased  prejudice  and  ill-will 
begotten  by  the  recent  war.  To  remove  these  barriers, 
hospitals  and  dispensaries  were  opened,  schools  were 
established,  and  in  every  possible  way  by  the  perform- 
ance of  kind  deeds,  the  persistent  effort  was  made  to 
prove  that  these  messengers  of  the  Gospel  came  unself- 
ishly, and  as  the  truest  friends. 

But  even  yet  we  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  days 
primeval.  Only  six  tiny  points  can  be  touched,  while 
the  vast  empire  is  still  closed  against  all  foreigners. 


A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

The  government  is  as  determined  as  ever  to  stand  aloof 
from  the  nations,  in  complacent  and  haughty  self-satis- 
faction.    England,  America,  and  all  the  rest,  continue 
to  be  but  "  foreign  devils,"  and  "  barbarians,"  whom  to 
abuse,  and  insult,  and  hold  in  contempt,  is  a  virtue. 
And  in  particular,  this  capital  point  the  rulers  stead- 
fastly refused  to  yield.     Foreign  ambassadors  should  not 
be  allowed  a  residence  in  Peking  and  have  direct  and 
immediate  access  to  the  emperor,  Son  of  Heaven  that  he 
was.     Another  war  was  required,   which  was  but  the 
concluding    chapter  to  the  first,   before  overweening 
pride  would  give  way.    And  so,  as  in  no  other  region  the 
truth  has  sought  to  enter,  in  a  sense  it  was  necessary  for 
the  evangelist  to  wait  until  the  soldier  had  done  his  pre- 
paratory work.     Only  by  carnal  weapons  could  the  val- 
leys be  exalted  and  the  mountains  be  made  low,  and  in 
the  desert  a  highway  for  our  God    be  made  straight. 
The  conflict  ensued  in  1857-60,  which  ended  forever  the 
preposterous  assumptions  of  the  Manchu  dynasty,  and 
whose  final  act  occurred  in  the  capture  of  Peking  by 
the  combined  forces  of  Great  Britain  and  France,  with 
other  nations  as  interested  spectators,  and  the  looting 
and  the  burning  of  the  magnificent  Summer  Palace  of 
the  emperor,  as  one  of  the  most  impressive  incidents. 
The  treaty  of  Tien-tsin  settled  it  that  ten  more  cities 
should   be   opened   to   trade,   that  the  whole  empire 
should  be  open  for  missionaries  to  pursue    their  be- 
neficent calling,   while  their  converts  should  be  free 
from  persecution,  and    that    foreign    ministers   might 
take  up  their  abode  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  im- 
perial palace.      However,    it  was    yet  thirteen   years, 
and  not  till    1873,  tha*    under   the   persistent   efforts 
of  the  representatives   of  Russia,  the  United  State* 


THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE;    KOREA.  325 

Great  Britain,  France  and  the  Netherlands,  an  audi- 
ence was  allowed  with  the  entire  omission  of  the 
kotow,  or  prostration  in  the  presence  of  His  Majesty ; 
the  last  remnant  on  his  part  of  a  claim  to  essential  su- 
periority, and  on  their  part  of  the  admission  that  they 
were  but  vassals.  These  were  indeed  days  of  severe 
chastening  for  China.  For  during  the  same  period 
(1850-64)  was  raging  the  terrible  Tai-ping  rebellion, 
which  covered  a  large  portion  of  the  Eighteen  Provinces 
with  conflagration  and  wholesale  slaughter.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  not  less  than  twenty  millions  of  human  beings 
fell  victims  to  this  political  upheaval.  In  the  later  stages 
of  the  struggle  with  anarchy  the  European  powers  lent 
their  aid,  with  "  Chinese  "  Gordon  and  his  "  ever  vic- 
torious army,"  as  a  most  important  factor.  Then  it  was 
that  this  most  thorough-going  English  Christian  soldier 
fought  side  by  side  with  Li  Hung  Chang,  the  future  fore- 
most of  Chinese  statesmen,  and  a  warm  friendship  sprung 
up  between  them. 

The  radical  revolution  which  had  been  wrought  in  the 
empire  is  well  set  forth  in  the  statement  of  Wells  Wil- 
liams that,  when  in  1833  with  two  other  Americans  he 
arrived  at  Canton,  they  were  reported  to  the  leading 
hong-merchant  as  foreign  devils  who  had  come  to  live 
under  his  tutelage ;  and  in  1874  as  secretary  to  the 
American  embassy  at  Peking,  he  accompanied  the  min- 
ister when  in  person  he  presented  his  letters  of  credence 
to  the  Emperor  Tungchi,  and  was  received  on  a  footing 
of  perfect  equality  !  But  this  marvel  did  not  occur  until 
sixty-seven  years  after  Morrison  reached  China,  and  forty 
years  after  he  had  gone  to  his  reward.  So  far  as  treaties 
and  diplomacy  could  avail,  the  way  was  now  open  for 
the  messengers  of  peace  to  go  up  and  down,  here  and 


326  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

there,  wheresoever  they  would,  proclaiming  the  glad  tid« 
ings  to  the  myriads  of  the  needy.  But  other  barriers  re- 
mained, far  less  visible  and  tangible,  but  far  more  per- 
plexing and  difficult  to  remove.  Such  as  the  snares  set 
by  their  false  forms  of  faith,  certain  national  peculiarities, 
lying,  gambling,  the  extensive  use  of  opium,  as  well  as 
the  bad  feeling  excited  by  the  military  operations.  Nor 
was  the  fault  altogether  on  their  side.  Mr.  Medhurst 
tells  of  a  tract  written  against  him,  which  will  help  us  to 
see  how  Occidentals  appear  in  the  eyes  of  the  Celestials. 
The  foreigners  had  introduced  a  poisonous  drug,  for  their 
own  benefit  and  the  injury  of  others,  and  so  were  defi- 
cient in  benevolence  ;  "  sending  their  armies  and  fleets 
to  rob  other  nations,  they  could  make  no  pretentions  to 
rectitude ;  allowing  men  and  women  to  mix  in  society 
and  walk  arm  in  arm  through  the  streets,  they  showed 
that  they  had  not  the  least  sense  of  propriety ;  and  in 
rejecting  the  doctrines  of  the  ancient  kings  they  were  far 
from  displaying  wisdom ;  indeed  truth  was  the  only 
quality  to  which  they  could  lay  the  least  claim.  Defi- 
cient therefore  in  four  out  of  the  five  cardinal  virtues, 
how  could  they  expect  to  renovate  others?  Then, 
while  foreigners  lavished  money  circulating  books,  they 
made  no  scruple  of  trampling  printed  paper  under  foot, 
by  which  they  showed  their  disrespect  for  the  inventors 
of  letters.  Further,  these  would-be  exhorters  of  the 
world  were  themselves  deficient  in  filial  piety,  forgetting 
their  parents  as  soon  as  dead,  putting  them  off  in  deal 
coffins  only  an  inch  thick,  and  never  so  much  as  once 
sacrificing  to  their  manes,  or  burning  the  smallest  trifle 
of  gilt  paper  for  their  support  in  the  future  world. 
Lastly,  they  allowed  the  rich  and  noble  to  enter  office 
without  passing  through  any  literary  examinations,  and 


THE  CHINESE   EMPIRE;    KOREA.  327 

did  not  throw  open  the  road  to  advancement  to  the 
poorest  and  meanest  in  the  land.  From  all  these  it  ap- 
peared that  foreigners  were  inferior  to  Chinese,  and  not 
fit  to  instruct  them." 

We  have  now  reached  the  third  stage  of  missionary 
history  in  China,  and  enter  the  modern  period,  which 
covers  only  about  forty  years,  and  brings  us  down  to  the 
present.  The  churches  of  Christendom  began  at  once  to 
improve  the  enlarged  opportunity  by  increasing  the  force 
in  the  field,  so  that  presently  all  the  larger  denomina- 
tions were  represented  in  the  empire,  and  within  a 
decade  the  number  of  societies  engaged  had  risen  to 
nearly  thirty.  The  bulk  of  the  missions,  however,  were 
in  the  coast  region,  while  the  vast  interior  was  left  well- 
nigh  desolate.  It  was  therefore  a  great  event  in  the 
evangelization  of  China,  when  in  1853  the  Rev.  J.  Hud- 
son Taylor  appeared  upon  the  scene,  and  when,  about 
ten  years  after,  organized  by  his  tireless  energy  and  flam- 
ing zeal,  the  China  Inland  Society  sent  forward  its  first 
missionary.  As  the  name  declares,  its  object  was  to 
push  in  towards  the  central  and  western  portions  of  the 
empire  where  the  spiritual  destitution  was  most  appall- 
ing, and  before  the  century  closed  almost  every  one  of 
the  eighteen  provinces  had  been  occupied.  The  income 
of  the  society  had  increased  to  $265,000,  its  missionaries 
numbered  811  (more  than  a  third  of  all  in  the  empire), 
with  work  done  at  989  stations,  and  8,540  communicants 
gathered,  of  whom  1,194  had  been  received  within  the 
limits  of  a  twelvemonth.  This  was  one  of  the  first  of 
the  "faith"  missions,  and  it  also  stands  at  the  front 
among  them.  A  number  of  denominations  are  repre- 
sented in  the  working  force.  Though  both  as  to  man- 
agement and  sources  of  supply  it  is  British,  it  is  inter- 


328  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

national  as  well.  More  than  half  of  the  staff  were 
enlisted  in  Great  Britain,  but  more  than  a  third  were 
supplied  from  Scandinavian  countries,  with  scores  also 
from  America  and  Australia. 

In  1867  the  Irish  Presbyterians  began  a  Gospel  cam- 
paign in  Manchuria,  pushing  inland  from  Newchwang  to 
Mukden;  and  the  Scottish  United  Presbyterians  came 
after  in  1873,  not  as  rivals  but  as  allies,  with  John  Ross 
as  the  gifted  leader.  Ever  since  the  two  bodies  have 
toiled  together  in  harmony,  and  with  such  wisdom  and 
vigor  that  at  the  end  of  a  generation  the  communicants 
numbered  9,831  and  the  adherents  25,320.  In  1870  the 
London  Society  sent  out  James  Gilmour  to  begin  a  won- 
derful career  of  endurance  and  achievement  which  lasted 
until  his  death  twenty  years  afterwards.  By  the  close  of 
the  century  China,  the  greatest  of  all  missionary  fields, 
had  been  entered  by  nearly  seventy  societies.  Though 
the  bulk  of  the  toil  was  still  expended  upon  the  provinces 
lying  adjacent  to  the  coast,  nevertheless  the  central  por- 
tions were  now  dotted  with  points  of  light,  while  quite  a 
company  of  bearers  of  Glad  Tidings  had  fixed  themselves 
in  regions  far  towards  the  remote  western  and  south- 
western frontiers.  Even  far  off  and  most  conservative 
Hunan  had  yielded  to  the  inevitable,  and  was  constrained 
to  tolerate  the  presence  of  the  indomitable  Griffith  John 
of  the  London  Society,  as  well  as  grant  titles  to  all  such 
real  estate  as  was  required  for  mission  uses  ! 

But  space  is  lacking  to  tell  a  tithe  of  the  story  of  the 
marvels  that  have  been  wrought,  and  practically  within  a 
period  of  thirty  years.  It  was  only  three  decades  ago 
that  the  time  of  blossoms  and  fruitage  began  to  appear. 
Hitherto  the  statistics  from  the  hard  field  had  been  dis- 
couraging, but  in  1877  the  625  stations  and  out-stations 


THE  CHINESE   EMPIRE;    KOREA.  329 

could  report  i3>SiS  church  members,  and  73  ordained 
native  pastors,  with  519  other  preachers.  And  from  that 
date  the  gains  have  been  steady  in  every  department  of 
the  work,  and  at  a  rate  constantly  increasing.  We  have 
already  seen  how  indispensable  a  part  in  the  opening  of 
China  was  played  by  the  destructive  operations  of  foreign 
navies  and  armies.  But  another  infliction  even  more 
terrible  and  destructive  to  life,  by  the  God  of  missions 
was  overruled  to  the  effectual  opening  of  closed  and 
stony  hearts,  and  so  the  great  furtherance  of  the  Gospel. 
The  reference  is  to  the  famine  of  1877-8,  said  to  be  the 
worst  of  any  recorded  in  history,  and  whose  victims  are 
estimated  at  from  ten  to  thirteen  millions.  The  Great 
Plain,  so  densely  populated,  was  the  theater  of  this  ap- 
palling calamity,  with  the  three  provinces,  Shansi, 
Shensi,  and  Shantung,  as  the  chief  sufferers,  and  the 
cause  was  found  in  the  almost  entire  absence  of  rain 
during  four  successive  years.  With  the  missionaries  in 
the  forefront  as  leaders  and  actors,  upwards  of  $400,000 
were  raised  and  distributed  to  the  starving  by  foreigners, 
of  whom  some  seventy  contributed  their  time  and 
strength,  and  four  fell  a  sacrifice  to  exposure  and  over- 
work. The  Government  was  astonished  and  deeply  im- 
pressed by  this  unheard  of  example  of  pure  benevo- 
lence, and  expressed  its  appreciation  in  various  effective 
ways.  And  as  for  the  people,  at  first  suspicious  of  sinis- 
ter designs  on  the  part  of  the  distributors,  they  refused 
the  offered  charity,  and  were  ready  to  mob  and  maltreat 
their  would-be  benefactors,  and  the  utmost  of  wisdom, 
and  caution,  and  tact  were  required  to  overcome  the  in- 
veterate dislike  and  fear.  Finally,  however,  confidence 
and  even  gratitude  were  won,  though  in  Kaifung,  the 
capital  of  Honan,  to  the  very  last  the  "  foreign  devils" 


330  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

were  forbidden  to  remain  with  their  food  and  other  sup- 
plies, or  even  to  carry  on  their  relief  work  in  the  en- 
virons !  From  this  time  forward  throughout  most  of  the 
large  region  so  sorely  afflicted  there  was  found  a  marked 
increase  of  readiness  to  receive  visits  from  Americans 
and  Europeans,  and  to  hear  the  Gospel  from  their  lips, 
while  converts  also  began  rapidly  to  multiply,  the  scores 
becoming  hundreds,  and  the  hundreds  swelling  to  tens 
of  thousands. 

Among  the  instrumentalities  found  most  effective  for 
removing  prejudice  and  arousing  interest,  no  doubt  the 
medical  arm  of  missions  holds  a  prominent  place.  No 
less  than  241  physicians,  79  of  them  women,  are  minis- 
tering to  the  sick  and  suffering  of  China,  with  some  360 
hospitals  and  dispensaries  open  to  those  who  need  treat- 
ment. Not  only  did  the  great  Li  Hung  Chang  con- 
tribute munificently  to  secure  and  maintain  a  hospital 
and  medical  school  in  Tientsin,  but  wherever  such  insti- 
tutions are  established  a  large  part  of  the  running  ex- 
penses are  met  by  gifts  of  wealthy  Chinamen  and  foreign 
residents.  The  next  most  important  auxiliary  to  evan- 
gelization is  found  in  connection  with  the  numerous 
schools  of  every  grade,  the  Bible  and  tract  societies,  and 
the  numerous  printing  presses.  There  are  some  two 
dozen  publishing  houses  in  Shanghai,  Fuchau,  Peking, 
etc.,  which  are  pouring  out  books  by  the  million  and  tracts 
by  the  ten  million,  including  newspapers  and  magazines 
(33  periodicals  in  all),  school  books,  grammars,  diction- 
aries, commentaries,  and  the  like.  But,  best  of  all,  these 
elevating  forces  are  wielded  by  an  army  of  consecrated 
men  and  women.  Almost  70  missionary  societies  share 
in  the  stupendous  task,  and  maintain  2,785  toilers,  of 
whom  1,597  are  women,  besides  a  native  force  of  nearly 


THE  CHINESE   EMPIRE;    KOREA.  331 

6,400.  According  to  Grundemann,  as  the  nineteenth 
century  ended  93,000  communicants  were  found  in  the 
churches,  with  adherents  numbering  206,000,  and  40,- 
ooo  in  the  schools.  In  addition,  a  Roman  Catholic 
population  of  a  half-million  or  more,  with  at  least  700 
priests  and  other  laborers,  is  not  to  be  omitted. 

Such  was  the  situation  two  or  three  years  ago.  But 
then,  at  the  close  of  a  decade  marked  by  many  kinds  of 
disturbance  and  confusion,  a  fearful  tempest  and  catas- 
trophe befel.  First  came  the  Chino-Japanese  war,  so 
full  of  disaster  and  humiliation  to  the  Chinese.  In  the 
same  year  occurred  the  Vegetarian  uprising  near  Fuchau, 
attended  by  the  loss  of  1 1  missionary  lives — acjults  and 
children  belonging  to  the  Church  Missionary  Society. 
In  1897  Germany  unceremoniously  seized  Kiao-chau 
harbor  and  fortifications  in  Shantung,  and  compelled  the 
bestowal  of  extensive  mining,  trading  and  railway  privi- 
leges in  that  province.  The  year  following  Russia  forced 
the  "lease"  of  Port  Arthur  and  Ta-lien-wan,  whereupon 
the  British  demanded  a  "  lease  "  of  Wei-hai-wei  in  the  same 
region,  while  the  French  were  urging  similar  favors  for 
themselves,  with  wild  talk  all  abroad  about  a  partition  of 
the  empire  !  Now  too  it  was  that  the  Emperor  astounded 
the  world  by  issuing  in  quick  succession  some  scores  of 
edicts  looking  to  radical  reforms  in  various  realms,  though 
the  Empress  Dowager  speedily  brushed  this  innovator 
aside,  and  proceeded  to  set  up  a  reactionary  regime. 
Finally,  to  crown  all  the  excitement  and  commotion,  and 
largely  as  the  result  of  the  series  of  events  just  named,  the 
horrors  of  the  Boxer  Outbreak  occurred,  the  siege  of  the 
legations  in  the  capital,  the  alliance  of  the  Western  nations, 
the  capture  of  Tientsin  and  Peking,  and  the  infliction  of 
severe  penalties  including  an  indemnity  of  $300,000,000. 


332  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

But  meantime  the  frantic  Boxers  had  massacred,  to- 
gether with  several  tens  of  thousands  of  Chinese  Chris- 
tians, no  less  than  179  missionaries  (44  of  them  Roman 
Catholic)  and  53  missionaries'  children.  The  China 
Inland  was  the  chief  sufferer,  losing  58  men  and  women, 
after  that  came  the  Christian  Alliance  with  a  loss  of  26, 
then  the  American  Board  and  the  English  Baptist  13 
each,  and  the  American  Presbyterian  5.  For  the  time 
almost  all  evangelizing  work  was  suspended,  with  homes, 
schoolhouses  and  churches  burned  or  leveled  with  the 
ground.  But  since  the  close  of  that  fateful  year  the  task  of 
restoring  and  rebuilding  has  been  pushed  rapidly  forward. 

KOREA. 

For  Korea,  the  land  of  Morning  Calm,  a  few  para- 
graphs must  suffice.  Missionaries  have  but  recently 
entered,  and  only  the  slightest  beginnings  have  been 
made.  Many  statements  made  concerning  China  and 
Japan  will  apply  here.  The  kingdom  consists  of  a  pen- 
insula, lying  between  the  Yellow  Sea  upon  the  west,  and 
Japan  Sea  upon  the  east.  The  side  which  joins  it  to  the 
continent  borders  upon  China  and  the  Russian  pos- 
sessions. Formerly  a  neutral  strip  some  sixty  miles  by 
three  hundred  separated  Korea  from  the  Celestial  Em- 
pire. The  area  is  something  over  80,000  square  miles, 
and  the  population  is  perhaps  12,000,000,  though  the 
figures  are  but  estimates.  The  statement  is  not  much 
amiss  that  the  Koreans  are  a  sort  of  cross  between  the 
Chinese  and  the  Japanese,  since  at  various  important 
points  they  strikingly  resemble  the  former  nation,  and  at 
others  are  closely  akin  to  the  latter.  Nevertheless  in 
many  respects  they  differ  radically  from  both.  For  one 
thing,  the  language  is  quite  distinct.  But  written 


THE  CHINESE   EMPIRE;    KOREA.  333 

Korean  is  employed  only  by  the  common  people,  while 
for  all  official  and  literary  purposes,  and  by  the  upper 
classes,  the  Chinese  is  used  exclusively.  The  Chinese 
Classics  supply  the  substance  of  education.  Politically, 
this  peninsula  may  be  termed  independent,  and  at  divers 
times  invaders  have  been  driven  out.  And  yet  from 
time  immemorial  China  has  asserted,  and  Korea  has 
accepted,  a  suzerainty.  As  late  as  1882  the  claims  of 
the  over-lord  were  restated  and  reconceded.  Every  new 
ruler,  and  every  heir-apparent,  seeks  investiture  from  the 
emperor,  while  year  by  year  embassies  are  despatched  to 
Peking  to  pay  tribute  and  homage.  Buddhism  was 
formerly  the  ruling  religion,  but  in  comparatively  recent 
times  has  been  well-nigh  displaced  by  the  teachings  of 
Confucius.  The  worship  of  ancestors  is  universal,  and 
finds  no  rival  among  the  people,  except  in  the  general 
•yid  ever-present  dread  of  evil  spirits,  and  in  the  frequent 
performance  of  ceremonies,  wherewith  to  circumvent 
their  malevolent  designs,  and  neutralize  their  power  to 
do  harm. 

Some  centuries  since,  Korea  imitated  her  sister  nations 
on  either  side  in  closing  her  ports  against  all  comers,  and 
isolating  herself  to  the  utmost;  fully  determined  to 
travel  her  own  way,  and  neither  to  take,  nor  receive,  in 
the  least  degree,  the  knowledge  or  wealth  to  be  derived 
from  commerce,  or  from  other  forms  of  intercourse  with 
mankind.  Fear  of  encroachment  increased  almost  to 
frenzy  when,  about  1860,  Japan  had  been  overawed  by 
the  visits  of  several  fleets  from  the  West,  the  allies  had 
captured  Peking,  and  had  sacked  and  burned  the  Sum- 
mer Palace,  and  Russia  had  seized  the  opportunity  to  lay 
hands  upon  vast  territories  in  the  region  of  the  Amoor. 
From  this  time  forward  the  Korean  Gates  to  the  north- 


334  A  HUNDRED   VEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

west  were  watched  most  carefully  both  day  and  night, 
while  strong  guards  patrolled  every  exposed  point  along 
the  coast.  Whoever  approached  was  ordered  off,  and 
no  communication  was  held  with  the  feared  and  hated 
strangers  from  over  the  sea.  The  French  had  a  serious 
grievance,  and  came  with  a  fleet  to  obtain  redress,  but 
failed  utterly.  Twice  over,  the  United  States  sent  ships 
of  war  on  a  similar  errand,  and  though  some  hard  and 
successful  fighting  was  done,  no  impression  was  made. 
Then  Japan  endeavored  to  secure  a  treaty  which  should 
be  of  advantage  to  both  nations,  and  at  length  succeeded. 
And  finally,  in  1882,  through  the  good  offices  of  Li 
Hung  Chang,  a  treaty  was  made  with  the  United  States, 
three  ports  were  thrown  open  to  commerce,  and  a  minis- 
ter-resident was  received  by  the  king,  and  permitted  to 
reside  at  Seoul,  the  capital.  About  two  years  later  oc- 
curred the  genesis  of  Protestant  missions. 

But,  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  Christianity  en- 
tered Korea.  Through  intercourse  with  Roman  Catholic 
priests,  while  on  embassies  to  Peking,  some  well-to-do 
Koreans  had  become  acquainted  with  the  teachings  of 
the  Gospel,  received  the  truth  as  it  was  apprehended, 
and  returning  home,  began  zealously  to  teach  and  prac- 
tice the  same.  The  new  religion  seemed  to  meet  a  felt 
want,  and  spread  rapidly.  A  few  foreigners  stole  in  at 
the  imminent  risk  of  their  lives  to  impart  instruction 
concerning  doctrine  and  the  forms  of  worship.  But 
presently  the  number  of  the  converts  became  so  large  as 
to  attract  the  attention  of  the  jealous  government,  and 
stern  measures  of  repression  were  instituted.  During 
the  first  half  of  the  century  seasons  of  persecution  alter- 
nated with  seasons  of  quiet  and  growth.  But  in  the 
thirties  the  Korean  mission  came  into  the  hands  of 


THE  CHINESE   EMPIRE;    KOREA.  335 

French  ecclesiastics,  who  began  to  push  measures  of 
propagandism.  More  than  a  dozen  priests,  in  disguise, 
had  stolen  across  the  boundaries,  and  were  creeping 
here  and  there  about  the  country,  diffusing  the  leaven  of 
faith  and  devotion.  In  1864  a  change  of  rulers  occur- 
red, and  the  new  king  speedily  made  a  savage  onslaught 
on  all  the  Christians  he  could  find.  Bishop  Berneux, 
and  eight  other  Frenchmen,  were  seized  and  put  to  death, 
with  insult,  torture,  and  multilation,  and  whole  com- 
munities died  by  the  sword.  It  cannot  but  be  counted 
most  singular,  that  in  each  of  the  three  hermit  nations 
the  evangelizing  attempts  of  the  Papacy  ran  so  similar  a 
course,  and  reached  a  conclusion  so  almost  exactly  the 
same. 

It  came  to  pass  that  in  1873  Rev.  John  Ross,  sent  out 
by  the  Scottish  United  Presbyterians,  began  work  in 
Manchuria,  and  later  paid  a  visit  to  the  Korean  Gates, 
where  every  year  a  great  fair  was  held,  and  to  which  the 
people  came  in  great  numbers  to  trade  with  the  Chinese. 
He  found  them  exceedingly  shy,  suspicious,  uncommuni- 
cative, and  unapproachable.  But  returning  a  year  later, 
the  situation  was  so  changed  that  he  was  able  to  hire  a 
Korean  to  return  with  him  to  Mukden,  and  to  teach 
him  the  language.  As  soon  as  possible  he  set  about 
translating  the  Bible,  and  when  the  Gospel  of  Luke  was 
in  readiness,  proceeded  to  put  it  in  print,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  a  second  native  from  the  peninsula.  Later  still, 
several  were  found  willing  to  serve  as  colporteurs  in  the 
valleys  among  their  countrymen,  Mr.  Ross  supplying 
portions  of  the  New  Testament  in  Korean,  and  Bibles  in 
Chinese.  Such  was  the  readiness  to  receive  these  books, 
and  with  such  earnest,  ingenuous  purpose  were  they  put 
to  use,  that  messages  began  to  come  beseeching  teachers 


33<>  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

and  baptism.     Several  times  he  tried  to  pass  the  barriers 
upon  the  boundaries,  but  was  stopped  and  turned  back 
by  the  guards.     However,  eighty-five  received  baptism 
at  his  hands,  and  afterwards  when  missionaries  were  tol- 
erated in  the  country,  whole  neighborhoods  were  found 
professing  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  waiting  to  learn  the 
way  more  perfectly.     The  American  Presbyterians  were 
the  first  to  move  in  the  matter  of  sending  the  Gospel 
message  to  Korea  direct.     In  1884  Dr.  H.  N.  Allen  was 
transferred  from  China  to  Seoul,  while  Mr.  Underwood 
came  a  little  after.     And  it  was  in  the  very  nick  of  time. 
For  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  a  serious  riot  occurred  in 
the  capital,  in  which  several  men  of  high  rank  were 
slain,  or  covered  with  wounds.     Among  them  was  Prince 
Min  Yong  Ik,  a  nephew  to  the  king,  dreadfully  cut,  and 
at  the  point  of  death  from  loss  of  blood.     Dr.  Allen  was 
called  in  and  such  was  his  surgical  skill  and  success, 
that  the  court,  and  the  whole  city  was  filled  with  amaze- 
ment.    He  was  looked  upon  as  an  angel  from  heaven, 
and  there  was  no  limit  to  his  popularity.     He  became 
court  physician,  and  a  royal  hospital  was  built  at  great 
cost,  with  him  in  sole  charge.     When  an  embassy  was 
sent  to  Washington,  this  Christian  physician  accom- 
panied it  as  foreign  secretary,  his  place  in  the  hospital 
being  filled  by  another  missionary,  while  a  third,  Miss 
Ellers,  M.  D.,  was  appointed   physician  to  the  queen. 
Naturally,  ever  since,  the  medical  side  of  missionary  ef- 
fort has  been  put  prominently  forward  in  Korea. 

In  1885  the  American  Methodists  appeared  upon  the 
scene  in  Seoul,  in  the  persons  of  Mr.  Appenzeller  and 
Dr.  Scranton.  The  first  opened  a  school  which  later  be- 
came known  as  Yi  Wha,  which  being  interpreted,  signi- 
fies "For  the  Training  of  Useful  Men,"  and  the  latter 


THE  CHINESE   EMPIRE;    KOREA.  337 

opened  a  hospital,  afterwards  honored  by  receiving  from 
the  king  a  signboard  reading  thus :  "  Wide  Spread  Re- 
lief Hospital."  And  such  a  conception  has  been  gained 
of  the  value  of  Western  education,  Christianity  included, 
that  three  young  men  from  the  ranks  of  the  distinguished 
nobility  have  been  sent  to  the  Methodist  college  in 
Shanghai.  In  1887  this  same  denomination  opened  a 
printing  establishment,  which  issues  works  in  three  lan- 
guages, Korean,  Chinese,  and  English.  In  1888  mis- 
sionaries entered  this  field  representing  two  organizations 
in  Canada.  The  year  after,  the  Presbyterians  of  Aus- 
tralia joined  their  forces  with  those  already  at  work,  the 
Propagation  Society  (S.  P.  G.)  came  the  same  year, 
while  in  1892  the  Presbyterian  Church,  South,  began 
work  in  the  peninsula.  The  three  Presbyterian  bodies 
have  since  formed  a  council,  for  united  effort,  and  look- 
ing to  the  ultimate  existence  of  but  one  mission  church 
of  this  ecclesiastical  order  in  the  entire  kingdom.  Within 
the  last  decade  still  other  societies  have  sent  their  repre- 
sentatives to  assist  in  the  redemption  of  Korea,  so  that 
the  number  now  engaged  is  eleven,  of  which  seven  are 
American,  three  are  British,  and  one  is  Australian.  The 
missionaries  constitute  a  company  of  140,  with  an  aux- 
iliary force  of  more  than  150  natives,  with  work  done  at 
800  points. 

As  recently  as  1888  edicts  were  issued  forbidding  the 
public  preaching  or  teaching  of  Christianity,  and  outside 
of  the  treaty  limits  the  presence  of  foreigners  was  toler- 
ated only  through  the  non-action  of  the  authorities. 
Though  the  people  were  quite  willing  to  listen  and  learn, 
the  greatest  prudence  and  caution  were  constantly  re- 
quired. However,  tours  of  observation  could  be  made 
without  serious  opposition,  with  occasional  opportunities 


33^  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

for  conversation,  and  Christian  literature  could  be  dis- 
tributed, while  every  day  schools,  hospitals,  and  dis- 
pensaries, lent  most  efficient  aid.  But  within  the  last 
ten  years  a  wonderful  change  has  come  in  this  regard, 
and  on  many  accounts  Korea  takes  rank  among  the  most 
hopeful  of  mission  fields.  The  first  baptism  did  not 
occur  until  1886,  but  now  the  communicants  number 
more  than  6,000,  not  including  the  Roman  Catholics 
who  have  gained  a  much  larger  following.  Best  of  all, 
the  converts  as  a  class  in  various  particulars  display 
unusual  strength  of  character.  Their  piety  is  of  a  busi- 
nesslike kind,  and  full  of  rugged  common  sense.  They 
possess  not  a  little  of  the  evangelizing  spirit,  making 
their  convictions  known  to  their  unevangelized  neigh- 
bors, and  seeking  to  win  them  to  their  new  faith.  Per- 
haps beyond  any  others  gathered  out  from  lands  long 
heathen,  the  Koreans  are  of  an  independent,  self-reliant 
make  and  take  a  godly  pride  in  sustaining  the  Gospel  for 
themselves,  in  building  their  own  churches  and  in  paying 
the  salaries  of  their  pastors.  Or,  as  a  missionary  has 
phrased  it:  "To-day  Korea  has  over  20,000  men  and 
women  who  have  cast  away  their  idols  and  worship  God, 
so  mightily  has  the  Word  of  God  grown  and  prevailed. 
But  more  encouraging  even  than  this  is  the  earnestness 
and  liberality  of  the  converts.  Their  zeal  and  generosity 
in  building  churches,  in  supporting  and  spreading  the 
Gospel,  is  a  lesson  to  older  Christians."  And  another 
writes :  "  A  peculiar  feature  of  the  work  in  Korea  is  that 
it  is  self-supporting.  The  natives  carry  it  on,  while  the 
missionaries  have  only  to  direct  them  and  to  train  up 
leaders  for  the  future." 


CHAPTER  XVIE. 
JAPAN. 

AMONG  other  names  are  Dai  Nippon,  The  Sunrise 
Kingdom,  and  The  Land  of  Great  Peace.  This  prodigy 
among  modern  empires  is  composed  of  islands  number- 
ing some  three  or  four  thousand,  though  only  four  are  of 
any  considerable  size.  The  Kurile  Islands  are  included 
at  the  north,  and  the  Lu  Chu  Islands  at  the  south. 
The  entire  area  is  estimated  at  about  160,000  square 
miles.  The  main  portion  of  the  mikado's  domain 
stretches  along  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia  in  the  shape  of 
a  bent  bow,  at  one  extremity  lying  at  no  great  distance 
from  Korea,  and  at  the  other  approaching  to  within  five 
miles  of  the  Russian  possessions.  The  principal  island 
has  a  length  of  about  eight  hundred  miles,  and  contains 
nearly  half  of  the  superficies  of  the  empire.  The  sur- 
face is  largely  broken  and  mountainous,  with  scarcely 
more  than  twelve  per  cent,  susceptible  of  cultivation. 
Twenty  live,  and  numerous  extinct,  volcanoes  proclaim 
the  geological  origin  of  the  country,  while  earthquakes 
are  frequent  and  destructive.  Fuji-san,  the  loftiest  of 
summits,  which  rises  to  an  elevation  of  12,365  feet,  is  a 
volcanic  cone,  and  constitutes  the  crowning  glory  of  the 
islands,  as  well  as  the  pride  of  every  Japanese.  As  to 
climate,  general  statements  are  likely  to  mislead,  since 
the  northern  and  southern  limits  are  separated  by  some- 
thing like  thirty  degrees  of  latitude,  or  two  thousand 
miles,  and  approach,  the  one  to  arctic,  and  the  other  to 

339 


34°  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

tropical  conditions.  And  further,  down  the  western 
shores,  through  the  Japan  and  Yellow  Seas,  sweeps  con- 
tinually an  ocean  current  from  the  frozen  regions,  while 
up  the  eastern  coast  sets,  summer  and  winter,  the  Kuro 
Siwo,  Black  Current,  the  Asiatic  counterpart  of  our  Gulf 
Stream,  performing  the  double  office  of  heat-bearer,  and 
moisture-carrier.  At  certain  seasons  floods,  typhoons, 
and  tidal  waves,  are  liable  to  work  wide-spread  disaster. 
According  to  Mr.  Griffis,  "  Nature's  glory  outshines  her 
temporary  gloom,  and  in  the  presence  of  her  cheering 
smiles  the  past  terrors  are  soon  forgotten.  The  pomp  of 
vegetation,  the  splendor  of  the  landscape,  and  the 
heavenly  gentleness  of  air  and  climate  come  to  soothe 
and  make  vivacious  the  spirits  of  man.  The  seasons 
come  and  go  with  well-nigh  perfect  regularity;  the 
climate  at  times  reaches  the  perfection  of  that  in  a  tem- 
perate zone — not  too  sultry  in  summer,  nor  too  raw  in 
winter.  The  majority  of  the  inhabitants  rarely  see  ice 
over  an  inch  thick,  or  snow  more  than  twenty-four  hours 
old."  Rice  is  the  principal  food  product,  though  the 
ocean  and  the  streams  are  most  bountifully  stocked  with 
fish  of  excellent  quality. 

The  population  of  Japan  somewhat  exceeds  46,000,000, 
making  an  average  of  nearly  two  hundred  and  sixty  to 
the  square  mile,  though  in  many  sections  the  density  is 
very  much  greater.  The  inhabitants  are  thought  to  have 
entered  the  islands  originally  both  from  the  north  and 
the  south,  and  as  well,  to  some  extent,  from  China  and 
Korea.  The  Ainos  at  the  north  are  reckoned  as  aborigi- 
nes, whose  numbers  are  but  small.  Two  races  are  easily 
discernible,  distinguished  by  marked  differences  of  feat- 
ure and  mental  quality,  the  one  constituting  the  upper, 
and  the  other  the  lower  classes.  The  people  in  general, 


JAPAN.  341 

the  average  of  the  nation,  possess  not  a  few  attractive 
and  lovable  traits.  They  are  quick-witted,  inquisitive, 
ready  to  learn,  but  also  mercurial  to  the  borders  of  fickle- 
ness and  beyond ;  are  enthusiastic,  and  polite  in  the  ex- 
treme, and  hence  have  been  dubbed  "  the  French  of  the 
Orient."  Respect  for  parents  is  universal,  the  family  is 
the  great  thing,  the  individual  is  almost  nothing  by  com- 
parison. The  last  named  conviction,  or  instinct,  will  ex- 
plain the  meaning  back  of  the  astounding  reply  to  a 
question,  "I  have  lived  in  this  locality,  or  I  have  wrought 
at  this  trade,  for  four  hundred  years  !  "  Reverence  for 
superiors  is  also  bred  in  the  Japanese  bone,  especially  for 
the  heaven -descended  emperor,  while  patriotism  is  often 
a  passion,  a  frenzy.  Death  is  despised  on  comparatively 
slight  occasion.  Of  course,  we  should  not  be  surprised 
to  find  that  much  brass,  iron  and  even  clay  are  found 
mingled  with  the  gold  of  mental  and  moral  constitution. 
Among  national  sins  may  be  set  down  lying  and  licen- 
tiousness. Where  Christianity  has  not  brought  reform, 
truth  for  truth's  sake  is  a  phrase  without  force  or  mean- 
ing, while  concubinage  was  provided  for  in  the  legal  and 
social  regime,  prostitution  was  legalized,  and  without 
any  shock  to  the  moral  sense,  girls  were  sold  by  their 
parents  to  lives  of  shame  and  accepted  the  dreadful  fate 
meekly,  and  as  a  matter  of  course.  Life  too  was  held 
in  light  esteem,  and  assassination  and  suicide  frequently 
rose  to  the  rank  of  virtues.  Further,  with  all  its  delicacy 
and  refinement  of  make,  the  Japanese  mind  is  affirmed 
to  have  no  capacity  for  musical  performance  and  appre- 
ciation, at  least,  according  to  occidental  standards. 

Japan,  like  China  her  neighbor,  is  possessed  of,  not 
one  religion,  but  several.  The  oldest  is  the  Shinto, 
which  is  thought  to  be  scarcely  worthy  to  be  called  a 


342  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

religion,  consisting  in  ancient  times  of  not  much  more 
than  a  form  of  nature  worship  and  reverence  for  an- 
cestors, and  now  being  mainly  an  affair  of  the  state,  and 
employed  to  regulate  the  relations  between  the  emperor 
and  his  subjects.  Then  the  ideas  of  Confucius  are 
widely  afloat,  through  the  prevalence  of  Chinese  as  the 
language  of  literature,  and  the  use  of  the  Chinese 
Classics  in  the  schools  of  the  empire.  Buddhism  was 
introduced  from  China  in  552  A.  D.,  was  some  six 
centuries  in  fighting  its  way  to  universal  acceptance,  and 
then  passed  through  a  period  of  development,  receiving 
extensive  and  radical  modifications.  How  prominent  is 
the  place  held  by  these  pagan  faiths  in  the  daily  life  of 
the  people,  is  seen  by  the  fact  that  the  Shinto  shrines 
number  196,242,  and  of  Buddhist  temples  there  are  108,- 
109,  with  nearly  70,000  priests,  so  that  there  is  a  temple 
or  shrine  to  about  every  130  inhabitants. 

The  Japanese  claim  at  least  twenty-six  centuries  of 
existence  for  their  empire,  and  the  career  of  this  nation 
can  be  traced  quite  well,  far  back  towards  the  Christian 
era.  For  many  generations  the  islands  were  divided  be- 
tween various  tribes  or  clans,  independent,  and  often  at 
war,  but  finally  all  were  brought  under  the  sway  of  a 
single  ruler.  Then  little  by  little  grew  up  a  military 
class,  which  also  gradually  became  subject  to  a  hereditary 
commander-in-chief  (shogun,  the  tycoon  of  later  times), 
while  the  other  generals  became  princes  (daimios)  in 
possession  of  castles  and  extensive  landed  estates,  each 
also  keeping  about  him  a  body  of  armed  retainers 
(samurai),  who  owed  him  fealty  and  loyal  service  in  the 
field,  and  for  whose  support  he  provided.  In  other 
words,  a  complete  feudal  system  was  established,  which 
lasted  for  seven  hundred  years  and  until  its  overthrow  in 


JAPAN.  343 

1868.  And  finally  this  head  of  the  army  became  the 
de facto  ruler  of  the  state,  holding  his  court  in  Yedo 
(the  Tokyo  of  the  present  day),  while  the  mikado,  the 
ruler  de  jure,  dwelling  in  far  off  Kyoto,  held  only  the 
ignoble  semblance  of  dominion. 

The  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun  was  first  heard  of  by  the 
western  world  when,  late  in  the  eleventh  century  Marco 
Polo,  returning  from  a  long  residence  at  the  court  of 
Kublai  Khan,  told  incredible  stories  about  a  certain 
Zipangu.  It  was  in  search  of  this  same  land  of  wonders 
that,  two  hundred  years  later,  Columbus  set  out,  and  for 
which  at  his  first  landing  he  inquired  of  the  natives. 
The  Portuguese,  following  in  the  track  of  Vasco  da 
Gama,  were  the  first  of  Europeans  to  reach  the  islands 
by  sea.  Mendez  Pinto  was  the  pioneer,  and  others  of 
his  countrymen  came  after  to  trade.  Christianity  was  in- 
troduced in  1549.  Xavier,  in  southern  India,  had  met 
a  Japanese,  who  on  account  of  crime  had  fled  his 
country,  but  later  had  repented  and  embraced  the  Gospel, 
and  asked  him  if  the  people  would  be  likely  to  receive 
the  Gospel.  The  reply  was  notable  and  wondrously  sig- 
nificant:  "His  people  would  not  immediately  assent 
to  what  might  be  said  to  them,  but  they  would  investi- 
gate what  I  might  affirm  respecting  religion  by  a  multi- 
tude of  questions,  and  above  all  by  observing  whether 
my  conduct  agreed  with  my  words.  This  done,  the 
king,  the  nobility  and  the  adult  population  would  flock 
to  Christ,  being  a  nation  which  always  follows  reason  as 
a  guide."  Such  a  nation  must  not  be  passed  by,  and  in 
due  season  the  Apostle  of  the  Indies  landed  in  Japan, 
with  two  other  Jesuits  and  two  natives.  Xavier  did  not 
undertake  to  master  the  language,  but  spoke  through  in- 
terpreters, and  had  a  varied  experience.  All  available 


344  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

expedients  were  resorted  to,  and  when  the  aspect  of 
poverty,  austerity,  and  asceticism,  failed  to  attract  and 
excited  only  contempt,  he  turned  to  the  other  extreme 
of  ecclesiastical  pomp  and  display,  and  made  costly 
presents  to  the  emperor  and  princes.  After  some  suc- 
cesses, and  various  failures,  he  took  his  departure,  leaving 
the  work  in  other  hands,  and  sending  in  additional 
laborers.  By  the  end  of  five  years  considerable  progress 
had  been  made,  and  before  the  first  generation  had 
passed  the  churches  numbered  two  hundred,  and  the 
converts  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  In  1583  four 
nobles  were  sent  on  a  visit  to  the  Pope,  kissed  his  feet, 
had  an  audience  with  Philip  II.,  and  returning  brought 
with  them  seventeen  more  Jesuits.  Spanish  missionaries 
also  flocked  in  from  the  Philippines,  friars  of  the 
Dominican  and  Augustan  orders,  full  of  faith  and  zeal. 
Oratory  was  fervid  concerning  the  Cross  of  redemption, 
and  was  reinforced  by  generous  measures  of  images, 
pictures,  gorgeous  altars,  and  all  such  paraphernalia  as 
Rome  knows  so  well  how  to  employ,  whereby  the  im- 
aginative and  impressible  multitudes  were  stirred  to  the 
depths,  were  led  away  captive  to  the  charmer.  More- 
over, divers  miracles  were  conveniently  wrought  just 
then,  while  all  along,  the  transition  from  Buddhism  to 
Catholicism — systems  which  have  so  much  in  common — 
was  made  extremely  easy.  As  the  result,  several  princes, 
large  numbers  of  the  high  officials  and  nobility,  officers 
in  the  army  and  navy,  gave  in  their  allegiance  to  the 
Church.  These  were  the  palmy  days  of  the  Inquisition, 
and  in  Japan  carnal  weapons  were  wielded  in  the  service 
of  the  Lord.  Certain  daimios  ordered  their  retainers  to 
be  baptized,  with  banishment  from  the  realm  as  the  hard 
alternative.  And  the  neophytes  were  incited  to  acts  of 


JAPAN.  345 

violence  against  the  Buddhists.  The  character  of  the 
bonzes  was  attacked,  and  shrines  were  desecrated  and 
destroyed.  One  perfervid  noble  razed  many  temples,  and 
burned  three  thousand  monasteries.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  number  of  converts  at  one  time  reached  a  million, 
and  it  seemed  certain  that  Japan  would  become  wholly 
Christian. 

But,  alas,  such  prosperity  was  the  ruin  of  the  mission, 
and  the  empire  received  a  shock  from  which  it  did  not 
recover  for  centuries.  First  the  Jesuits  and  the  friars  fell 
out,  and  fell  to  anathematizing  and  excommunicating 
each  other.  It  was  Portuguese  against  Spaniard,  and 
Spaniard  against  Portuguese.  Then,  to  make  confusion 
worse  confounded,  the  Protestant  Dutch  and  English  be- 
gan to  resort  to  the  islands  for  trade,  and  proceeded  to 
malign  the  whole  race  of  Catholics  as  rogues  and  schem- 
ing villains,  who  were  plotting  mischief  for  the  Japanese. 
Suspicion  was  aroused,  and  fear,  and  dislike.  The 
Jesuits  and  friars  were  ordered  to  take  their  departure, 
and  public  services  ceased  to  be  held.  Later  a  plot  was 
discovered  to  betray  the  country  to  Europeans  and  perse- 
cution ensued  against  the  Christians,  and  finally  was 
much  intensified  in  severity  when  under  severe  sufferings 
they  rose  in  rebellion.  Thousands  were  put  to  death 
with  the  accompaniment  of  savage  tortures,  borne  as 
steadfastly  and  heroically  as  any  inflicted  since  the  days 
of  the  apostles,  and  thousands  more  fled  to  other 
countries.  All  Europeans  were  banished,  and  with  them 
from  henceforth  there  should  be  no  intercourse  whatso- 
ever. Only  a  handful  of  Dutch  might  remain  to  trade ; 
cooped  in  a  tiny  island,  Deshima,  might  send  out  one 
ship-load  a  year,  but  must  not  bring  in  any  Bibles  or 
Christian  books,  and  must  not  buy,  or  take  any  books 


346  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

on  Japanese  history.  No  natives  must  leave  the  country 
on  any  consideration,  and  to  make  the  attempt  was 
death.  All  ships  of  any  considerable  size  were  to  be  de- 
stroyed and  no  more  were  to  be  built.  It  was  also  death, 
and  deepest  disgrace  besides,  to  teach  or  to  practise  Chris- 
tianity. Edicts  against  this  "evil  sect"  were  posted 
everywhere  throughout  the  empire,  in  every  city  and  vil- 
lage, on  every  highway,  by  the  ferries  and  in  the  moun- 
tains, and  reading  in  this  vigorous  fashion  :  "So  long 
as  the  sun  shall  warm  the  earth,  let  no  Christian  be  so 
bold  as  to  come  to  Japan ;  and  let  all  know  that  the  king 
of  Spain  himself,  or  the  Christian's  God  [thought  to 
mean  the  Pope]  or  the  great  God  of  all,  if  he  violate  this 
command,  shall  pay  for  it  with  his  head  !  "  And  for 
more  than  two  centuries  the  attempt  was  kept  up  to  stamp 
out  utterly  the  least  traces  of  the  Gospel.  The  name  of 
Jesus  was  held  in  the  utmost  loathing  and  abhorrence. 
And  Japan,  like  her  sister  nations,  China  and  Korea, 
closed  and  barred  her  gates. 

The  isolation,  however,  was  not  perfect.  All  along, 
some  intercourse  was  maintained  with  her  near  neigh- 
bors to  the  west.  And  in  numerous  ways  also  the  Dutch, 
though  so  carefully  cabined,  cribbed,  confined,  and  most 
jealously  watched  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nagasaki  in 
the  extreme  south,  yet  in  various  most  efficacious  ways 
served  as  a  connecting  link,  a  medium  of  communication 
between  the  would-be  hermit  empire  and  "  outside 
barbarians."  Numerous  news  items  crept  in  through 
this  channel,  and  much  valuable  information  was  picked 
up  in  Deshima  and  diffused  far  and  wide.  We  now  ap- 
proach the  period  when  under  very  different  and  far  bet- 
ter auspices,  Christian  missions  were  destined  to  have  a 
re-beginning  upon  Japanese  soil.  For  in  the  meantime 


JAPAN.  347 

Protestant  powers  had  come  to  the  front  in  commerce, 
colonization  and  conquest.  In  1842,  China  had  been 
compelled  by  British  cannon  to  open  certain  of  her  ports 
to  trade,  and  in  considerable  numbers  the  heralds  of  the 
cross  were  flocking  thither.  A  most  remarkable  provi- 
dential preparation  for  the  opening  of  Japan  was  also  in 
progress.  And  it  was  meet  that  from  first  to  last  America 
should  play  a  leading  part  in  the  sublime  transaction, 
and  further,  that  the  achievement  should  not  be  made 
through  a  bloody  conflict  with  fleets  and  armies,  but 
should  stand  in  history  among  the  glorious  victories  of 
peace.  Only  a  few  years  before,  in  our  amazing  national 
movement  westward,  the  Pacific  coast  had  been  reached, 
and  by  the  discovery  of  gold,  through  the  consequent 
vast  influx  of  population  had  suddenly  risen  to  impor- 
tance. Thus  the  United  States  was  brought  face  to  face 
with  Japan,  and  stood  as  her  nearest  neighbor  to  the 
east,  with  only  the  ocean  as  a  convenient  highway  be- 
tween. In  those  same  days,  helped  by  a  liberal  treaty 
with  Russia,  the  northern  Pacific  was  thronged  with 
whalers,  whose  crews,  every  now  and  then  shipwrecked 
upon  the  rock-bound  coast  of  the  Sunrise  Kingdom,  had 
suffered  shameful  maltreatment.  Moreover,  it  hap- 
pened not  seldom  that  unfortunates  from  the  islands, 
caught  upon  the  open  sea  in  a  storm,  had  been  driven 
along  the  Black  Current  to  the  opposite  shores,  or  had 
been  picked  up  midway,  and  the  effort  had  been  made, 
though  frequently  repulsed  with  rudeness,  to  return  the 
waifs  in  safety  to  their  friends. 

As  a  result  of  these  and  other  similar  facts,  early  in 
the  fifties  the  idea  began  to  dawn  upon  the  minds  of 
various  persons  that  the  opening  of  Japan  was  a  con- 
summation devoutly  to  be  wished,  and  that  the  govern- 


34$  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

ment  should  make  a  bloodless  but  resolute  attempt  to 
secure  sailors'  rights  in  this  quarter  of  the  globe,  as  well 
as  to  secure  an  enlargement  to  American  commerce. 
And  in  due  season,  the  powers  that  be  reached  the  same 
conclusion,  and  preparations  began  to  be  made  for  an  ex- 
pedition which  should  lack  nothing  of  appliances,  or 
methods  of  procedure  calculated  to  ensure  success. 
Fortunately  the  command  was  given  to  Commodore  M. 
C.  Perry,  a  brother  of  the  hero  of  Lake  Erie,  who 
devoted  months  to  careful  working  out  of  details  for  a 
scheme  which  should  not  only  inspire  respect,  and 
kindle  a  healthy  fear  to  the  borders  to  terror,  but  in  equal 
measure  should  convince  the  Japanese  that  the  dominant 
feeling  was  friendly,  and  that  they  had  much  to  gain 
from  intercourse  with  the  western  world.  July  8th, 
1853,  is  a  notable  date,  for  it  was  then  that  Perry  and 
his  fleet  anchored  in  Yedo  Bay.  He  had  four  ships  of 
war,  two  of  them  steam  frigates,  whose  like  in  those 
waters  had  never  been  seen,  and  when  propelled  by 
some  invisible  force  they  moved  about  with  flame  and 
clouds  of  smoke,  the  paralyzed  natives  could  only  ex- 
plain the  phenomenon  by  supposing  the  barbarians  had 
caught,  and  tamed,  and  harnessed,  a  volcano  for  the 
task.  A  request  for  an  interview  was  sent  on  shore,  and 
in  reply  came  an  order  to  hoist  anchor  at  once  and  be 
off.  Not  so,  but  he  must  communicate,  for  he  bore  a 
message  to  the  Emperor  from  the  august  President  of 
the  United  States.  Then  he  must  transfer  himself  to 
Nagasaki,  and  speak  through  the  Dutch,  for  the  laws  for- 
bade all  direct  intercourse.  He  would  not  budge,  and 
so  much  the  worse  for  the  laws.  He  would  wait  three 
days  for  a  reply,  and  they  must  look  well  to  the  conse- 
quences of  refusal.  A  veritable  panic  ensued  in  the 


JAPAN.  349 

breasts  of  both  people  and  rulers.  After  much  solemn 
conference  in  Yedo,  it  was  finally  concluded  to  meet  the 
terrible  Unknown  (for  as  yet  no  Japanese  eyes  had  been 
allowed  to  look  upon  Perry),  but  on  his  vessel.  No,  he 
must  be  allowed  to  land,  and  confer  upon  their  own  soil. 
At  length  every  essential  point  was  yielded,  and  with 
great  ceremony,  and  show  of  dignity,  a  meeting  was 
accorded  with  a  high  official  representing  the  crown, 
the  gold  box  containing  the  letter  from  the  President, 
and  the  articles  of  the  treaty  desired,  was  given  and  re- 
teived,  notice  was  served  that  an  answer  would  be 
called  for  at  some  time  during  the  next  year,  and  a  few 
days  later  the  fleet  steamed  away  and  disappeared. 
After  about  six  months  had  passed  once  more  the  "  black 
ships"  hove  in  sight  from  the  headlands,  but  this  time 
there  were  nine  instead  of  four,  and  anchor  was  cast 
much  further  up  the  bay  than  on  the  former  occasion, 
indeed  almost  in  sight  of  the  capital  city.  After  divers 
delays,  and  subterfuges,  and  protests  of  non-possumus, 
on  their  part ;  and  on  his,  sturdy  persistence  relating  to 
certain  particulars,  it  was  agreed  that  American  sailors 
should  be  well  treated,  that  at  two  ports  a  consul  might 
reside,  and  supplies  of  coal,  water,  provisions,  etc., 
might  be  procured,  and  though  just  now  trade  could 
not  be  allowed,  perhaps  in  a  few  years  the  privilege 
would  be  granted.  Then  followed  an  exchange  of  pres- 
ents on  a  grand  scale.  Among  Perry's  were  a  telegraph 
complete,  a  locomotive  with  rails  and  cars,  both  of 
which  were  put  in  order  and  set  to  work,  with  many 
other  products  of  modern  invention  and  skill.  The 
transaction  ended  with  feasting  on  ship  and  on  shore, 
the  freest  of  social  intercourse,  and  abundance  of  good 
feeling  all  around. 


35O  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

It  may  seem  that  the  outcome  was  but  slight  for  so 
much  endeavor,  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  all  the 
rest  to  be  related  resulted  easily  and  naturally  from  the 
achievement  then  made.  Other  nations  followed  and 
secured  similar  concessions,  and  before  1860  the  urgency 
of  our  ambassador  had  gained  the  consent  of  the  govern- 
ment to  the  opening  of  six  ports,  in  which,  and  for 
twenty-five  miles  about  them,  foreigners  might  trade  and 
travel.  In  1861  an  embassy  was  sent  on  a  visit  to  the 
United  States,  and  the  year  following  another  to  Europe. 
True,  the  Japanese  were  still  suspicious,  and  fearful  that 
the  irresistible  barbarians  had  political  designs  which 
would  work  mortal  mischief.  A  little  later  a  tide  of  re- 
actionary feeling  set  in,  some  foreigners  were  assassinated, 
and  even  vessels  of  war  were  fired  upon  from  the  shore, 
though  with  such  a  taste  of  vengeance  inflicted  in  re- 
turn that  never  since  has  occidental  wrath  been  thus 
provoked.  And  what  were  the  churches  of  Christendom 
doing  meanwhile  for  the  evangelization  of  the  Land  of 
the  Rising  Sun,  which  had  now  become  in  some  measure 
accessible  ?  Many  an  eye  had  long  been  watching  for 
the  hour  to  strike.  Especially  had  the  missionaries  in 
China  been  scanning  the  political  signs  of  the  times. 
As  early  as  1855  an  attempt  was  made  to  reach  Japan 
from  Shanghai,  but  passage  could  not  be  secured.  In 
1859  however  Messrs.  Liggins  and  Williams,  represent- 
ing the  American  Episcopalians,  landed  in  Nagasaki,  and 
began  work  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  before  the 
end  of  the  year  to  the  same  city,  bent  on  the  same 
heavenly  errand,  came  three  more,  Messrs.  Verbeck, 
Brown  and  Simmons,  sent  by  the  American  (Dutch)  Re- 
formed Church,  while  a  few  weeks  before  Messrs.  Hep- 
burn and  Nevius,  American  Presbyterians,  in  the  Lord's 


JAPAN.  351 

name  had  entered  Kanagawa  on  the  Bay  of  Jedo,  the 
scene  of  Perry's  exploit,  to  remove  afterwards  across  to 
Yokohama.  The  American  Baptists  followed  in  1860, 
and  for  almost  a  decade  no  more  societies  joined  in  the 
work.  Among  the  names  mentioned  are  some  of  the  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  giants  of  this  part  of  the  mission 
field.  But  their  sphere  of  toil  was  exceedingly  narrow, 
and  limited  on  every  side.  With  no  especial  ill-treat- 
ment, though  sometimes  their  lives  were  in  danger  from 
fanatical  assassins,  no  public  services  could  be  held,  the 
people  were  afraid  of  them,  and  spies  were  continually 
on  their  track.  They  could  only  quietly  prepare,  busy 
themselves  laying  foundations,  and  in  patience  possess 
their  souls.  They  could  study  the  difficult  language, 
circulate  Christian  literature  in  Chinese  which  all  the 
upper  classes  could  read,  let  themselves  be  seen  as  much 
as  possible  in  public,  and  by  numberless  kind  deeds  and 
acts  of  mercy  finally  compel  the  confidence  and  esteem 
of  the  sensible  and  candid.  And  presently  they  were  in 
demand  as  teachers  of  English  and  other  secular  studies, 
even  the  government  resorting  to  them  for  assistance  in 
many  things.  They  were  able  at  length  satisfactorily  to 
demonstrate  that  they  were  actually  what  they  seemed  to 
be,  not  emissaries  in  disguise  of  any  foreign  power,  with 
political  designs  back  of  religious  performances,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  Jesuits  with  whom  Japan  had  had  such 
sorry  experience. 

It  is  evident  that  as  yet  Japan  is  not  open  to  the  world, 
except  in  a  very  partial  and  superficial  way.  Foreign 
nations  had  done  their  part,  but  vastly  more  that  was 
just  as  essential  remained  to  be  performed  within  the  na- 
tion itself.  And  verily  changes  and  overturnings,  most 
sweeping  and  astounding,  were  at  the  door.  Here  was 


35*  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

a  case  where  things  "  sacred  "  must  needs  wait  on  things 
"  secular."     The  longings  of  patriots,  and  the  schemes 
of  statesmen,  must  precede  and  prepare  the  way  for  the 
heavenly  offices  of  the  herald  of  the  cross.     And  various 
mighty  influences  were  at  work  within  the  Japanese  body 
politic,  which  were  destined  marvellously  to  give  free 
course  to  the  Gospel.     An  intellectual  ferment  had  been 
in   progress    for   years.     Through   the   Dutch   traders, 
through  European  sailors  shipwrecked  upon  the  coast, 
and  through  Japanese  sailors  who,  in  spite  of  themselves, 
had  been  driven  to  foreign  climes,  many  an  exciting  ac- 
count of  lands  beyond  sea  had  entered  the  islands,  and 
been  eagerly  passed  from  lip  to  lip,  whereby  the  curios- 
ity of  not  a  few,  and  hunger  for  knowledge  had  been 
quickened.     Scores    of   young    fellows    like    Neesima, 
bright,  ambitious,  and  plucky,  had  been  running  away 
of  late  to  see  the  wide  world.     And  intercourse  with 
foreigners  in  the  treaty  ports  had  added  fuel  to  the  flame. 
But  most  of  all,  the  spirit  of  patriotism  was  finding  a 
new  voice,  and  was  nerving  many  an  arm  to  strike.     As 
we  have  seen,  the  military  head  of  the  nation  had  long 
since  usurped  supreme  authority,  while  the  power  of  the 
emperor  was  but  shadow  and  sham.     Dissatisfaction  has 
long  been  growing,  and  only  a  fitting  occasion  was  want- 
ing to  produce  an  outbreak  to  humble  the  shogun,  and 
to  exalt  the  mikado  to  his  proper  place  as  the  sacred 
head  of  the  people.     And  the  results  of  the  coming  of 
Perry's  fleet  supplied  the  required  stimulus.     The  Ameri- 
can commodore,  in  his  excusable  ignorance,  supposed  he 
was  dealing  directly  with  the  emperor ;  whereas  it  was 
only  his  chief  general,  and  also  he  that  signed  the  treaty, 
as  well  as  all  similar  engagements  soon  after  entered  into 
with  other  western  nations.     This  last  act  of  aggression 


JAPAN.  353 

was  worst  of  all,  and  was,  in  short,  intolerable.  Against 
the  law,  he  had  presumed  to  communicate  with  the  ab- 
horred barbarians,  had  entered  into  league  with  them, 
had  given  them  liberty  to  land,  and  dwell,  and  travel, 
and  trade  !  After  years  of  growing  excitement  the  crisis 
befell  in  1868.  A  variety  of  cross  purposes,  schemes 
and  counter-schemes,  were  curiously  combined  in  the 
bitter  and  bloody  strife  which  ensued,  and  raged  for  ten 
or  fifteen  years.  The  noisiest  cry  was  reactionary  in  its 
aims  and  demanded,  "Restore  the  emperor,"  and, 
"  Expel  the  barbarians."  With  the  first  half  in  mind, 
the  shogun  was  soon  persuaded  to  abdicate,  and  turn 
over  all  his  power  and  glory  to  the  mikado,  though  a 
number  of  the  daimios,  whose  political  fortunes  were  in- 
volved with  his,  resorted  to  arms. 

Fortunately  for  Japan,  there  was  a  body  of  influential 
statesmen  of  a  make  much  more  liberal  and  more  mod- 
ern. And,  though  for  years  their  startling  project  was 
concealed,  it  meant  nothing  less  than  the  overthrow  of 
feudalism  in  all  its  forms  and  phases,  a  cordial  welcome 
to  foreigners,  and  the  adoption  of  all  good  ideas,  cus- 
toms, and  institutions,  to  be  found  in  the  western  world. 
Where  in  all  history  can  such  sublime  daring  and  ven- 
turesomeness  be  found  ?  And  such  was  their  skill  and 
energy,  and  such  the  wave  of  generous  enthusiasm  which 
now  swept  over  the  whole  land,  that  the  bulk  of  the 
daimios,  great  and  small,  voluntarily  resigned  all  claim 
to  their  castles  and  landed  estates,  and  to  the  fealty  of 
their  retainers,  and  from  being  rulers  of  the  people,  con- 
sented to  take  the  place  of  mere  citizens  !  Where  else 
can  there  be  found  a  case  of  such  self-sacrifice,  and  self- 
abnegation  on  so  vast  a  scale  ?  Among  the  rest,  some 
two  millions  of  samurai,  soldiers  and  literati,  who  had 


354  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

always  lived  upon  the  bounty  of  their  over-lords,  were 
suddenly  left  without  occupation,  or  means  of  support. 
And  finally,  to  cap  the  climax  of  innovation  and  depart- 
ure from  the  sacred  precedents  of  centuries,  the  mikado 
conveniently  dying  just  them,  his  youthful  successor 
came  out  from  the  closest  seclusion  in  which  his  lofty 
kind  had  always  hid  themselves  from  the  gaze  of  the 
vulgar,  appeared  in  public  like  common  clay,  and  from 
hallowed  Kyoto,  where  in  dread  majesty  the  emperors 
had  dwelt  from  the  beginning,  changed  his  residence  to 
Yedo,  the  former  seat  of  the  shogun  now  defunct,  but 
with  the  name  changed  to  Tokyo.  At  length  came  the 
crowning  wonder,  and  when  one  day  The  Honorable  Gate, 
as  his  imperial  title  signifies,  "came  in  person  to  the 
meeting  of  the  Council  of  State  and  took  an  oath  as  an 
actual  ruler  promising  that  a  deliberative  assembly  should 
be  formed ;  all  measures  should  be  decided  by  public 
opinion  ;  the  uncivilized  customs  of  former  times  should 
be  broken  through ;  and  the  impartiality  and  justice  dis- 
played in  the  works  of  nature  be  adopted  as  a  basis  of 
action;  and  that  intellect,  and  learning,  should  be 
sought  for  throughout  the  world,  in  order  to  establish  the 
foundations  of  the  empire." 

Suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  an  embassy,  composed 
largely  of  high  officials  of  the  government,  was  des- 
patched to  the  United  States,  and  afterwards  made  a 
progress  through  Europe,  not  for  show,  but  for  earnest 
business;  appearing  in  Washington  in  February  of 
1872.  And  it  was  this  event  "  that  marked  the  formal 
entrance  of  Japan  upon  the  theater  of  universal  history." 
A  very  furore  for  change  set  in.  "  Everything  domestic 
came  to  be  looked  upon  as  inferior ;  everything  from 
abroad  was  accepted  as  superior,  and  adopted  with  lit- 


JAPAN.  355 

tie  inquiry  as  to  its  merits."  European  costume  for 
men  and  women,  modes  of  cooking,  beer  and  wine, 
dancing  and  cards,  among  other  "  improvements,"  be- 
came exceedingly  popular.  But  together  with  abundance 
of  folly,  choice  was  also  made  of  much  that  was  among 
the  best  and  most  characteristic  in  the  western  world. 
Like  the  Code  Napoleon,  navy,  army,  coinage,  post- 
office,  steamships  railroads,  telegraphs,  lighthouses  on 
every  prominent  point  of  the  coast,  cotton  and  paper 
mills,  a  school  system  extending  from  the  kindergarten 
to  the  university,  with  educational  works  by  the  hundred 
and  thousand,  as  well  as  modern  medicine  and  surgery. 
Yes,  and  commencing  with  January  of  1874,  the  Gre- 
gorian calendar  came  into  use,  and  the  Christian  Sabbath 
became  a  rest  day  for  all  teachers  and  government  em- 
ployees. Provision  was  made  for  a  constitution,  to  go 
into  effect  in  1890,  which  gave  the  country  a  legislature 
of  two  houses,  and  in  part  elected  by  the  people.  Some 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  eta  and  Ainin,  outcasts  held  in 
contempt,  and  with  no  protection  from  the  laws,  were 
made  citizens.  Some  hundreds  of  choice  young  men 
were  sent  to  the  United  States  to  be  trained  in  our  best 
institutions  of  learning,  and  as  many  more  to  those  of 
Europe.  To  meet  the  present  emergency,  until  natives 
could  be  educated  in  sufficient  numbers,  scores  ot  for- 
eign scholars,  engineers,  military  men,  jurists,  phy- 
sicians, etc.,  etc.,  were  called  in  to  construct  and  set  in 
motion  the  new  machinery.  Resort  was  also  had  in 
liberal  measure  to  Christian  missionaries  who  were 
already  upon  the  ground,  for,  not  unwillingly,  their 
manifold  gifts  and  graces  were  received  and  utilized  as 
an  integral  and  important  part  of  the  admired  civili- 
zation of  the  west.  Christian  scholars  like  Verbeck,  and 


A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

others,  were  in  higher  favor  from  the  fact  that,  while  the 
great  embassy  was  in  Germany,  where  much  was  seen 
and  heard  that  made  a  profound  impression,  the 
Emperor  William  and  Bismarck  hesitated  not  to  speak 
plainly  and  emphatically  to  the  Japanese  princes  of  the 
value  and  the  imperative  need  of  Christianity  among 
the  people,  if  a  nation  is  to  prosper.  And  what  an  un- 
matched spectacle  it  was,  taken  in  all  its  parts !  A 
renascence  vastly  more  wonderful  than  Italy  beheld  in 
the  famous  days  of  the  Medici.  Only  to  be  equaled,  for 
sublimity  and  significance,  by  the  first  months  of  the 
French  Revolution.  A  nation  was  born  in  a  day.  At 
one  leap  the  gulf  was  spanned  which  separated  the  Dark 
Ages  from  the  Nineteenth  Century  ! 

Just  about  twenty  years  after  Perry's  cannon  aroused 
the  hermit  nation  from  the  sleep  of  ages,  Japan  was  found 
open  and  accessible.  At  least  the  Gospel  could  enter 
with  a  fair  chance  to  make  its  way  forward.  The  edicts 
were  removed  in  1873,  which  for  two  hundred  years  had 
threatened  death  to  every  soul  that  dared  to  love  Jesus, 
or  to  speak  for  Him.  Long  after,  however,  church  prop- 
erty could  be  held  only  upon  the  concessions  granted  in 
the  treaty  ports,  while  elsewhere  ownership  must  be  in 
native  hands.  Neither  were  foreigners  allowed  to  reside 
in  the  empire  beyond  the  twenty-five  mile  limit,  unless 
in  the  employ  of  the  government,  or  of  some  native 
company,  or  individual.  In  order  to  travel  in  the  in- 
terior, passports  were  required,  and  these  were  granted 
only  upon  grounds  relating  to  "health"  and  "science." 
Though  these  two  terms  were  commonly  construed  by  the 
officials  with  almost  limitless  liberality,  consciences  not  a 
few  hesitated  about  preaching  Christ  under  such  a  sub- 
terfuge, and  with  at  least  the  semblance  of  law-breaking. 


JAPAN.  357 

But  in  spite  of  these  and  other  obstacles,  and  with  the 
rising  tide  of  enthusiasm  for  things  foreign  to  largely 
counterbalance,  when  for  substance  the  tremendous 
political  revolution  had  been  achieved,  a  great  and 
effectual  door  for  evangelizing  labor  was  found  standing 
open,  and  inviting  entrance.  All  along,  ever  since  their 
advent  nearly  fifteen  years  before,  the  half-score  of 
pioneers  had  been  making  the  most  of  their  limited  op- 
portunities, though  as  yet  with  next  to  nothing  to  show 
of  visible  results.  The  first  baptism  had  occurred  in 
1866,  but  the  first  church,  with  a  membership  of  nine 
natives,  was  not  organized  until  1872.  The  missionary 
force  was  now  greatly  enlarged  by  the  entrance  of  other 
organizations.  The  American  Board  and  the  English 
Church  Society  had  sent  their  representatives  in  1869, 
or  soon  after  the  abdication  of  the  usurping  shogun,  and 
within  five  years  five  more  followed,  and  in  this  order, 
making  ten  in  all :  The  Union  Woman's  Society,  the 
Methodist  Episcopal,  the  Canada  Methodist,  the  Propa- 
gation Society,  and  the  United  Presbyterian  of  Scotland. 
By  the  end  of  that  decade  fifteen  organizations  were  in 
the  field,  and  by  1890  the  number  has  risen  to  twenty- 
six.  During  the  period  of  armed  strife,  and  while  the 
stunning  political  changes  were  in  progress,  so  intensely 
occupied  were  men's  minds  in  other  realms  that  little 
time  was  left  to  attend  to  religious  affairs,  nor  to  any  ex- 
tent had  the  disposition  to  listen  to  what  the  mis- 
sionaries might  say  begun  to  be  as  yet.  Prejudice  had 
penetrated  to  the  heart's  core.  The  ogre  of  Jesuitism 
still  terrorized  the  multitude,  and  kirishitan  (Japanese 
for  Christian)  was  a  synonym  for  the  devil  and  all  his 
damnable  works.  The  ice  of  ignorance  and  dislike  was 
first  broken  by  the  passionate  desire  to  become  acquainted 


A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

with  the  marvels  of  the  western  world,  the  languages, 
sciences,  forms  of  government,  and  all  the  rest.  And 
who  so  accessible  as  the  clusters  of  missionaries  to  be 
found  in  the  treaty  ports.  To  gain  what  was  desired, 
all  sorts  of  schemes  and  subterfuges  were  resorted  to,  and 
large  doses  of  doctrine  and  moral  precept  were  swallowed. 
Classes  were  formed,  and  schools  were  opened.  And  it 
came  to  pass,  such  was  the  power  of  the  truth,  and  such 
the  docility  and  ingenuousness  of  the  Japanese  mind  and 
heart,  (vide  the  statement  concerning  the  people  made  to 
Xavier  by  the  convert  from  the  islands),  that  it  was  not 
long  before,  in  many  cases,  baser  motives  began  to  be 
exchanged  for  far  worthier  ones,  and  earnest  seekers  after 
salvation  began  to  multiply. 

And  this  phenomenon  presently  came  into  view.  A 
fact  became  evident,  which,  though  in  steadily  diminish- 
ing degree,  has  ever  since  characterized  Christianity  in 
the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun.  It  came  to  pass,  as  no- 
where else  in  the  annals  of  missions  either  ancient  or 
modern,  that  the  bulk  of  the  inquirers  and  converts  were 
not  from  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  the  pariahs  of  society ;  but 
from  among  the  middle-upper  class,  samurai,  the  knights 
of  the  feudal  days,  the  literati,  young  men  of  social 
standing  and  culture,  of  intellectual  force  and  political 
influence;  the  future  leaders  of  the  people,  statesmen, 
officials  of  the  government.  These  were  now  crowded 
into  the  large  cities,  were  the  first  to  come  into  contact 
with  foreigners,  and  to  feel  the  impact  of  the  new  ideas. 
Even  yet,  the  masses,  the  inhabitants  dwelling  in  the  in- 
terior, have  scarcely  been  touched  by  the  glad  tidings. 
A  distinct  and  memorable  advance  was  made  in  Yoko- 
hama in  1872,  when  Christians  of  every  name  united  to 
observe  the  Week  of  Prayer.  So  delightful  were  the 


JAPAN.  359 

meetings,  and  so  manifest  the  unusual  presence  of  the 
Spirit,  that  they  were  continued  through  the  month,  and 
to  the  end  of  February,  with  spiritual  power  steadily 
growing.  Much  earnest  supplication  was  mingled  with 
the  instruction,  and  the  Book  of  the  Acts  was  read  in 
course,  and  studied,  and  prayed  over.  It  was  a  season 
of  remarkable  religious  quickening  and  exaltation  of 
thought  and  feeling.  "  For  the  first  time  the  Japanese 
were  in  a  prayer-meeting,  and  upon  their  knees  pouring 
out  their  souls  for  a  blessing  on  their  country."  It  was 
verily  Pentecost  come  again.  As  a  direct  result,  early  in 
March  nine  young  men  were  baptized,  and  with  two 
older  ones  were  united  in  Christian  fellowship,  forming 
thus  the  first  church  in  Japan.  From  this  prophetic  be- 
ginning the  blessed  work  spread  to  other  portions  of  the 
field,  though  for  ten  years  nothing  else  so  noticeable  oc- 
curred. As  reinforcements  poured  in,  new  stations  in 
quite  large  numbers  were  opened.  The  native  Chris- 
tians were  fervid  and  had  a  mind  to  work,  and  before 
long  began  with  great  effect  to  play  the  part  of  evangel- 
ists to  their  neighbors  and  friends.  In  1877  the  first 
native  was  ordained,  and  set  over  a  church  in  Osaka. 
Two  years  before  this  Joseph  Neesima,  after  an  exper- 
ience full  of  elements  touching  and  romantic,  and  a 
thorough  course  of  training,  had  returned  from  America 
to  his  native  land  overflowing  with  zeal,  and  longing  to 
see  his  people  turned  to  the  Gospel,  in  due  season  to  lay 
the  foundations  and  rear  the  walls  of  his  Doshisha  (One- 
Purpose  Company),  a  Christian  university,  and  his  mon- 
ument for  all  time.  As  far  back  as  1871,  Captain  Janes, 
a  soldier,  had  been  engaged  by  an  ex-daimio  to  open  a 
school  for  young  men  in  Kumarrtoto.  For  three  years 
not  much  was  said  about  Christianity,  though  he  had 


A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OP  MISSIONS. 

gained  the  admiration  and  affection  of  his  pupils,  but 
then  one  day  he  said  :  "  I  shall  teach  the  Bible  on  Sun- 
day ;  any  one  who  wishes  may  come  to  my  house."  A 
few  accepted  the  invitation,  but  with  no  serious  purpose, 
and  only  out  of  regard  for  their  instructor.  After  an- 
other year  several  who  had  begun  to  be  impressed  fol- 
lowed Captain  Janes'  counsel  and  spent  a  New  Year's 
vacation  reading  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  in  prayer  for 
themselves  and  their  schoolmates.  A  revival  followed  in 
the  school  lasting  for  several  weeks,  during  which  about 
forty  confessed  Christ,  and  as  many  more  took  up  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures.  Finally,  one  Sunday,  a  com- 
pany of  the  Christian  students  "  made  a  solemn  cove- 
nant together  that,  as  they  had  thus  been  blessed  by  God 
in  advance  of  all  their  countrymen,  they  would  labor  to 
enlighten  the  darkness  of  the  empire  by  preaching  the 
Gospel,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  their  lives.  They  prayed 
kneeling,  and  wrote  an  oath-paper,  on  which  they  signed 
and  sealed  their  names."  Sharp  persecution  from  their 
relatives  followed  to  a  portion  of  the  number,  under  the 
effect  of  which  a  few  turned  back,  but  the  most— the 
oldest  was  under  twenty — were  immovable.  Presently 
they  appear  at  the  Doshisha,  to  form  its  first  theological 
class,  and  to-day,  with  a  few  exceptions,  are  found  in  the 
ministry,  or  in  other  related  callings,  and  the  members 
of  the  "  Kumamoto  Band  "  will  always  rank  high  among 
the  mighty  molding  forces  which  operated  early  in  New 
Japan. 

The  period  of  1870-80  was  one  of  quiet  and  not  ex- 
tensive growth.  The  seed  was  sown  beside  all  waters, 
but  the  abundant  harvest  was  not  yet.  In  1879  the 
number  of  converts  was  only  2,701  and  of  these  1,084  had 
been  received  during  the  year.  Then  followed  a  series 


JAPAN.  361 

of  years  during  which  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  Japan 
advanced  by  strides  and  leaps.  The  converts  increased 
marvelously,  at  the  rate  of  fifty  per  cent,  annually,  and 
during  one  year  at  the  rate  of  sixty-seven  per  cent.  And 
the  Christian  world  looked  on  with  amazement,  scarcely 
able  to  believe  the  reports  of  ingathering  sent  home  by 
the  rejoicing  missionaries.  It  looked  as  though  the  com- 
plete evangelization,  and  even  Christianization,  of  the 
empire  was  in  sight.  But  then  the  flood  of  zeal  began 
to  subside,  and  the  work  went  forward  much  more  slowly 
and  heavily.  In  1889  the  additions  to  the  churches 
amounted  to  5,677,  but  in  the  next  year  they  fell  off  to 
1,199,  with  a  number  still  smaller  in  1891.  The  craze 
for  foreign  products  was  now  over,  had  run  its  roaring 
and  turbid  course,  and  a  violent  reaction  had  set  in. 
An  almost  frenzy  began  to  rage  for  nationalizing  and 
Japanizing  everything,  and  in  religion  as  well  as  elsewhere. 
Besides,  a  rationalizing  spirit  entered  the  churches,  de- 
rived from  Unitarian  and  German  sources.  But  now 
the  indications  are  abundant  that  once  more  the  pendu- 
lum has  begun  to  swing  towards  the  center.  As  one 
token  from  a  number,  in  1892  the  accessions  to  the  mis- 
sion churches  rose  to  2,144,  or  double  those  of  the  year 
preceding.  These  figures  set  forth  something  of  the 
progress  made  to  date.  The  number  of  organizations 
engaged  is  44,  of  which  29  are  American  and  7  British. 
Of  missionaries  there  are  772  (594  Americans  and  248 
British),  252  ordained  and  248  unmarried  women;  with 
almost  300  ordained  and  1,500  unordained  Japanese. 
The  461  churches  have  about  44,000  members,  with 
85,000  adherents  and  12,300  in  the  schools.  Besides, 
the  Roman  Catholics  report  a  population  of  44,000,  and 
the  Greek  Church  (Russian)  of  27,000.  Therefore,  the 


362  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

total  including  all  who  in  some  degree  are  Christian 
exceeds  150,000. 

But  what  are  these  few  thousands  among  so  many 
millions  ?  The  bulk  of  the  population  has  not  yet  even 
heard  the  sound  of  the  Gospel  message.  The  mis- 
sions are  mainly  in,  or  near,  the  few  large  cities,  while 
the  masses  in  the  interior  are  left  to  their  idols,  and 
without  hope.  For  generations  to  come,  the  Macedonian 
cry  will  come  to  Christendom  from  these  islands,  and 
their  deep  spiritual  needs  will  demand  in  large  measure 
the  gifts,  the  prayers,  the  toils,  of  all  those  who  would 
see  the  kingdom  spread  over  all  the  earth. 

Before  passing  from  this  mission  field  so  interesting 
and  at  many  points  so  unique  it  may  be  well  to  notice 
two  or  three  of  its  most  striking  peculiarities.  And  first, 
from  the  beginning,  there  has  been  a  lack  01  apprecia- 
tion almost  utter  for  the  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
differences  which  separate  the  numerous  sects  engaged  in 
evangelizing  work  in  the  empire,  coupled  with  a  persist- 
ent disposition  to  ignore  them.  The  Japanese  idea  is 
this :  Why  should  the  numerous  quarrels  and  schisms 
of  Protestant  Christendom  be  introduced  and  perpetu- 
ated among  us?  Why  may  we  not  build  directly  upon 
the  Word  of  God,  the  teachings  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles,  instead  01  upon  the  creeds  and  customs  which 
divide  western  churches  into  warring  camps  ?  Like  the 
disciples  of  early  times,  why  cannot  we  be  all  one, 
united  in  a  single  national  church?  This  desire,  so 
strong  as  to  amount  to  a  settled  determination,  often 
springs  in  great  measure  from  an  inborn  indifference, 
and  inability,  as  touching  all  subtleties  of  logic  and 
metaphysical  hair-splittings,  and  an  overwhelming  pro- 
clivity to  lay  the  chief  emphasis  upon  the  practical  in  re- 


JAPAN.  363 

ligious  affairs.  It  was  significant  that  when  the  first 
church  was  organized  in  1872,  though  Presbyterian  in 
paternity,  the  only  name  taken  was  "  Church  of  Christ." 
And  so  general  and  imperative  has  been  the  demand  for 
union,  at  least  for  federation,  that  the  forty-four  societies 
are  found  combined  in  twelve  ecclesiastical  bodies,  and 
five  of  these  cover  all  but  4,644  of  the  native  Christians. 
Seven  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  societies  are  joined  in 
"The  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,"  four  Episcopal 
churches  unite  to  constitute  Nippon  Sei  Kokwai,  while  a 
remarkable  degree  of  harmony  and  fraternal  co-opera- 
tion exists  between  the  residue.  As  a  notable  example 
of  this,  in  1872  the  various  missions  met  and  chose  a 
representative  committee  to  prepare  a  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  which  should  suffice  for  all.  A  number  of  na- 
tive scholars  were  also  chosen  to  add  their  knowledge 
and  judgment.  The  New  Testament  was  issued  eight 
years  after,  the  Old  Testament  was  not  completed  until 
1888. 

Again,  and  quite  kindred  to  the  fact  just  mentioned,  the 
Japanese  display  a  remarkable  readiness  to  be  independ- 
ent, to  cut  all  leading-strings,  to  stand  alone.  Ordinarily 
in  mission  fields,  the  great  difficulty  has  been  to  per- 
suade converts  in  any  measure  to  think  and  act  for  them- 
selves. They  had  no  ambition  in  that  direction,  or  the 
capacity  was  wanting.  But  not  so  in  Japan.  Intellectual 
force  is  abundant,  with  national  pride  (not  to  say  con- 
ceit) to  reinforce  it.  In  explanation  we  are  to  recall  the 
fact  already  stated,  that  the  majority  of  the  conversions 
have  hitherto  been  from  among  the  samurai,  young 
men  of  the  cultured  tipper-middle  class,  and  not  from 
the  pariahs  of  society.  And  further,  since  the  marked 
reaction  set  in,  jealousy  of  all  foreign  interference  or  hi- 


364  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

fluence  has  received  an  astonishing  impulse,  even  to  the 
point  of  regarding  the  missionaries  as  intruders,  and 
would-be  rulers.  And  so  the  churches,  with  refreshing 
confidence  in  their  ability  thus  to  do,  proceed  to  fashion 
creeds  and  covenants  to  suit  themselves,  to  do  this 
and  that  with  slight  regard  for  Occidental  precedent. 
And  with  this  is  coupled  a  phenomenon  still  more 
strange.  In  a  multitude  of  cases  these  unique  saints  in- 
sist with  all  their  might  upon  exercising  the  privilege 
of  doing  the  work  of  evangelizing  their  fellow  country- 
men, and  of  paying  their  own  bills.  In  1878  a  native 
home  missionary  society  was  formed,  which  has  done 
much  to  spread  the  Gospel  in  neglected  and  benighted 
regions;  the  contributions  for  self-support  have  always 
been  liberal;  just  about  one  hundred,  or  nearly  one- 
fourth,  of  the  churches  are  self-supporting,  while  several 
have  never  received  or  sought  outside  financial  assistance. 
All  things  considered,  the  outlook  for  Christianity  in 
Japan  is  encouraging.  The  problems  and  perils  on  hand 
are  not  only  peculiar,  but  are  also  serious.  The  last 
decade  has  witnessed  several  sad  and  even  ominous  cases 
of  falling  away  from  the  purity  of  the  Gospel,  with  the 
temporary  lapse  of  the  Doshisha  perhaps  foremost  among 
them.  But,  notwithstanding,  the  good  omens  prepon- 
derate, and  if  only  the  churches  of  America  and  Europe 
perform  well  their  part,  we  may  reasonably  expect  that  in 
due  time  this  remarkable  young  giant  empire  of  the 
Orient  will  be  found  according  due  reverence  and  homage 
to  Jesus  as  the  world's  Redeemer  and  King. 


SPANISH  AMERICA. 

UNDER  the  phrase  Spanish  America  is  included  the 
entire  region  lying  between  the  southern  boundary 
of  the  United  States  and  Cape  Horn.  The 
area  under  view  equals  in  size  the  vast  Russian  posses- 
sions in  both  Europe  and  Asia,  or  Europe  twice  over  with 
three  German  empires  in  addition,  and  contains  a  popu- 
lation of  47,500,000.  For  many  reasons  there  is  a  fit- 
ness in  grouping  together  these  twenty  states  which 
politically  are  altogether  separate  and  distinct.  The 
general  physical  features  are  quite  similar.  The  peerless 
Andes,  with  their  northern  counterpart  the  Mexican 
Cordilleras,  extend  from  end  to  end,  with  here  and 
there  volcanic  peaks  the  loftiest  in  the  world.  The  land 
of  the  Montezumas  is  "probably  the  richest  known 
argentiferous  region  in  the  whole  world,"  the  output  be- 
ing estimated  at  the  prodigious  figure  of  twelve  thousand 
millions  of  dollars,  while  in  Peru,  Potosi  alone,  a  name 
which  ranks  with  Ophir  and  Golconda,  has  added  a 
thousand  millions  to  the  world's  stock  of  silver.  Then 
except  in  the  extreme  south  the  climate  is  either 
tropical  or  semi-tropical.  Besides,  the  composition  and 
character  of  the  population  differ  but  little.  The  ruling 
class  is  everywhere  Spanish,  Brazil  only  excepted,  and 
there  the  Portuguese  are  in  power.  Some  ten  or 
twelve  million  Indians  hold  their  original  seats  between 
the  Gulf  of  California  and  Cape  Horn,  a  large  portion 
still  in  paganism  and  savagery.  A  larger  element  of  the 

365 


366  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OP  MISSIONS. 

population  is  composed  of  a  mixture,  in  every  conceivable 
degree,  of  European  and  aboriginal  blood.  To  these  are 
joined  other  millions  of  Negroes,  once  slaves  but  now 
free,  while  in  later  times  has  occurred  a  large  emigration 
of  Germans,  Italians,  Jews,  etc.,  and  also  of  Chinese 
and  Hindu  coolies.  For  the  masses  illiteracy  is  the 
rule. 

Still  further  the  history  of  each  one  of  the  score  of 
states  is  in  outline  at  least  almost  indentical  with  that  of 
all  the  rest.  Spanish  America  was  the  first  section  of  the 
New  World  to  be  discovered  and  overrun  by  the  greedy 
gold  hunters  from  the  Iberian  Peninsula.  In  the  story 
which  sets  forth  their  doings  the  truth  is  far  stranger  than 
fiction.  In  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time,  by  an  un- 
paralled  series  of  tours  of  exploration  and  feats  of  arms, 
the  whole  coast  region,  both  on  the  east  and  west,  was 
visited  by  a  mere  handful  of  daring  spirits  and  fell  a 
prey  to  "civilization."  Colonies  were  founded  in 
Brazil  as  early  as  1504.  The  conquest  of  Mexico  was 
achieved  by  Cortes  with  five  hundred  and  fifty  men  in 
1510-21,  while  Pizarro  in  1531-2  with  one  hundred  and 
eighty  men  marched  against  the  Inca,  and  reduced  his 
empire  to  vassalage.  In  Buenos  Ayres  the  foundations 
of  dominion  were  laid  in  1535,  in  Paraguay  in  1536, 
and  in  Chili  in  1541.  For  the  better  part  of  three  cen- 
turies the  original  conquerors  retained  possession,  and 
then  suddenly  and  almost  simultaneously  (1809-21),  by 
a  common  and  irresistible  impulse  imparted  from  the 
Napoleonic  wars,  the  inhabitants  of  every  province,  from 
Texas  to  Tierra  del  Fuego,  rose  in  rebellion,  cast  off  the 
foreign  yoke,  proclaimed  independence,  and  one  after 
another  adopted  a  republican  form  of  government.  It 
is,  however,  a  sad  commentary  upon  the  intellectual 


SPANISH  AMERICA.  367 

and  moral  condition  of  the  people,  that  such  a  multi- 
tude of  would-be  despots  have  made  their  appearance 
from  that  day  to  this,  and  that  revolutions  with  immense 
expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure  have  been  so  absurdly 
frequent.  Evidently  fitness  for  self-rule  has  not  yet  been 
attained. 

Finally,  from  the  beginning,  the  entire  region  under 
view  has  been  under  the  same  ecclesiastical  domination, 
and  the  same  religious  training  has  been  bestowed.  In 
the  palmy  days  of  the  Great  Discovery  the  privileged 
Pope  had  the  whole  world  at  his  disposal,  and  graciously 
bestowed  the  New  World  upon  his  most  loyal  servitors, 
Spain  and  Portugal,  to  wit,  and  a  horde  of  priests  and 
friars  sped  across  the  Atlantic  to  rescue  the  souls  of  the 
pagans.  And  ever  since  in  realms  spiritual  the  papal 
church  has  all  things  to  its  liking,  has  not  failed  to  ru'.e 
with  a  high  hand,  and  the  fruits  of  ten  generations  of 
the  Roman  regime  appear  in  forms  most  characteristic, 
if  also  lamentable  and  heart-sickening.  The  outcome  is 
even  worse  than  that  to  be  found  in  southern  Europe. 
The  civilization  is  of  a  low  grade,  while  the  masses  are 
left  to  grovel  in  dense  ignorance  and  gross  superstition. 
Too  often  the  priesthood  is  scarcely  above  the  people  for 
intelligence  and  is  grossly  immoral,  while  the  religious 
teaching  and  practice  are  a  curious  compound  of  Chris- 
tianity and  heathenism,  and  the  elements  of  the  latter 
preponderating.  With  fine  and  costly  architecture,  and 
stunning  spectacular  display,  the  church  routine  is  an 
empty  form,  while  all  that  represents  the  pure  and 
blessed  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  is  dragged  down  to  the 
low  level  of  the  current  political  and  social  life,  and  with 
shockingly  easy  accommodation  to  the  semi-pagan  and 
semi -barbarous  environment.  Of  course  the  tropical 


368  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

climate,  with  excessive  heat  and  moisture  combined, 
adds  to  the  demoralization  and  degradation.  Let 
Paraguay  stand  for  Rome's  most  illustrious  achievement 
in  the  New  World.  For  nearly  a  hundred  years  here 
was  the  veritable  paradise  of  Jesuitism.  The  Franciscans 
were  the  first  upon  the  ground,  but  later  the  wily  dis- 
ciples of  Loyola  entered,  and  soon  ordered  off  all  rival 
missionary  toilers,  and  from  1690  to  1768  held  exclusive 
possession.  There  was  no  lack  of  propagandizing  zeal, 
and  from  among  the  simple-minded  natives  converts  were 
made  by  the  ten  thousand.  These  were  gathered  into  vil- 
lages for  more  thorough  discipline.  A  theocracy  was  set 
up,  a  "philanthropic  despotism."  Private  ownership  of 
property  was  abolished,  and  in  its  place  community  of 
goods  prevailed.  In  a  spirit  truly  paternal,  the  holy 
fathers  managed  all  the  secular  (as  well  as  sacred)  affairs 
of  the  people,  directed  their  labor,  taught  them  various 
useful  handicrafts,  and  in  almost  every  way  fairly  outdid 
Louis  XIV.  himself  in  his  precious  dealings  during  the 
same  period  with  his  habitans  on  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Minds,  and  hearts,  and  consciences,  were  as  clay  in  the 
hands  of  these  matchless  potters,  obedience  was  perfect, 
while  of  individual  volition  there  was  nothing  left. 
Humanity  was  even  transmogrified  into  a  machine. 
Only  let  the  Jesuit  touch  the  spring,  and  action  would 
follow  strictly  according  to  law.  Since  the  political 
revolutions  occurred,  several  of  the  states  have  made  no 
inconsiderable  advances  towards  enlightenment  of  every 
kind,  in  most  popular  education  and  religious  liberty  are 
provided  for  by  law,  and  yet  quite  a  number  have  made 
next  to  no  progress  at  all.  Almost  anywhere  between 
New  Mexico  and  southern  Patagonia  to  introduce  the 
Bible,  or  any  form  of  teaching  other  than  that  of  the 


SPANISH  AMERICA.  369 

Catholic  type,  is  to  face  fierce  denunciation  and  mob 
violence,  if  not  also  death.  The  roll  of  Protestant 
martyrs  in  Spanish  America  contains  already  names  not 
a  few  and  is  a  lengthening  one.  For,  practically  every- 
where a  bigoted  priesthood  is  supreme  in  the  hopes  and 
fears  of  the  sorely  benighted  millions.  And  it  was 
mainly  on  account  of  this  universal  and  abject  bondage 
to  Rome,  with  the  consequent  intolerance  to  the  extent 
of  horror  and  loathing  for  the  ideas  and  practices  flow- 
ing from  the  Reformation,  that  missions  in  these  parts 
are  of  such  recent  origin,  have  as  yet  scarcely  emerged 
from  the  estate  of  feeble  infancy,  and  so  South  America 
with  strict  propriety  can  be  termed  "  the  Neglected  Con- 
tinent." 

Let  us  begin  our  more  minute  survey  with  the  southern 
half  of  the  New  World,  reserving  Mexico  and  Central 
America  for  the  latter  portion  of  the  chapter.  Between 
the  Isthmus  of  Darien  and  Cape  Horn  lies  a  vast  mass 
of  land  4500  by  3200  miles  in  its  greatest  length  and 
breadth,  and  covering  some  7,500,000  square  miles. 
The  most  remarkable  physical  features  are  found  in  its 
mountains,  its  mighty  rivers,  and  its  vast  grassy  plains 
(pampas).  The  Amazon  has  no  equal  on  earth,  it  drains 
an  area  of  2,600,000  square  miles,  or  twice  the  size  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  while  sending  into  the  sea  a  flood 
six  times  greater  than  that  of  the  Father  of  Waters. 
The  bulk  of  this  huge  continent  is  situated  within  the 
tropics,  the  equator  stretching  westward  from  the  point 
where  the  Amazon  enters  the  Atlantic,  but  an  ever  nar- 
rowing extension  reaches  far  towards  the  southern  pole. 
The  continent  is  parcelled  out  among  thirteen  national- 
ities, and  these  figures  will  give  the  area  and  population 
of  each  one. 


37O  A  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

SQUARE  MILES.  POPULATION. 

Brazil,  3,209,000  16,000,000 

Argentine  Republic  1,125,000  4,800,000 

Venezuela,                                             600,000  2,323,000 

Bolivia,                                                   570,000  2,200,000 

Colombia,                                               505,000  4,280,000 

Peru,                                                      465,000  4,622,000 

Chili,                                                       295,000  2,820,000 

Ecuador,                                                 120,000  1,270,000 

Uruguay,                                                     75*000  900,000 

Paraguay,                                                  100,000  660,000 

The  three  Guianas,                                200,000  500,000 

Total,  7,264,000  40,375,000 

Passing  by  for  the  moment  the  original  enterprise  look- 
ing towards  carrying  a  pure  Gospel  into  South  America, 
the  first  successful  attempt  at  evangelization  was  made  in 
1735,  by  the  Moravian  Church,  and  in  Dutch  Guiana 
(Surinam).  This  was  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  only  thirteen  years  after  that  body  of  Chris- 
tians had  begun  to  be,  and  while  all  the  rest  of  Protes- 
tant Christendom  was  sunk  in  a  deep  sleep  as  touching 
obedience  to  the  Lord's  last  command.  And  what  an 
anomaly  it  is,  that  more  should  have  been  accomplished 
to  date  for  the  redemption  of  this  southern  continent  by 
this  feeblest  and  humblest  of  the  denominations,  than  by 
all  the  others  combined,  and  that  more  than  half  of  all 
the  Protestant  Christians  of  South  America  should  be 
found  in  the  less  than  least  of  all  the  states,  whether  for 
size  or  population !  In  accordance  with  the  policy 
settled  at  Herrnhut  of  preferring  fields  spiritually  most 
barren  and  forbidding,  after  selecting  the  enslaved  Afri- 
cans of  the  West  Indies,  and  then  the  Eskimos  of  Green- 
land, the  northeast  coast  lying  between  the  mouths  of 
the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco  was  chosen  as  the  seat  of 
the  third  mission.  And  verily  here  the  Brethren  found 


SPANISH   AMERICA.  371 

sin  and  sorrow,  suffering  and  shame,  to  their  hearts'  con- 
tent, and  for  themselves  in  sowing  and  watering  for  the 
Master  long  waiting  and  discouragements  numberless. 
"The  low-lying  coast  land  was  deadly  for  Europeans, 
and  the  dense  forests,  through  which  the  Surinam  and 
other  rivers  wend  their  earlier  course,  are  still  more 
deadly.  It  was  there  that  for  a  time  every  soul  won 
cost  a  missionary's  life."  Men  and  women  died  by  the 
dozen  and  the  score,  but  there  was  no  lack  of  others  to 
fill  their  places.  For  various  reasons  progress  was  slow 
for  almost  the  entire  first  hundred  years.  Three  classes 
in  particular  were  sought  after.  First  the  Arawack 
Indians,  and  if  possible  worse  off  than  these,  the  bush 
negroes,  who  had  once  been  in  bondage,  but  had  fled 
from  their  masters  and  taken  refuge  in  the  back  country, 
and  for  the  most  part  led  the  life  of  outlaws  and  des- 
peradoes. After  the  toil  of  forty-eight  years  only  fifty 
converts  had  been  made.  The  third  class  was  composed 
of  the  slaves  upon  the  plantations.  The  Dutch  masters 
eyed  the  missionaries  through  the  spectacles  of  odium 
theologicum,  their  ideas  and  ways  were  so  different  from 
those  of  the  Reformed,  and  in  addition  were  much  afraid 
that  piety  of  the  Moravian  type  working  in  the  black 
breast  might  seriously  interfere  with  his  value  as  a  field 
hand.  Some  generations  passed  before  much  access 
could  be  gained  to  these  wretched  creatures.  Wars  came 
in  to  further  interfere,  and  also  famines  and  pestilences. 
But  nothing  could  daunt  the  courage  of  these  ambassa- 
dors for  Christ,  or  at  all  chill  the  fervor  of  their  zeal  for 
souls,  and  finally  they  conquered  by  sheer  patient  con- 
tinuance in  well-doing,  coupled  with  unbounded  good 
nature,  kindness,  sympathy,  and  true  affection,  even  for 
the  very  vilest.  In  the  early  decades  of  this  century  the 


37  2  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

skies  began  to  brighten.  The  emancipation  of  the  slaves 
in  the  sixties  led  to  much  confusion,  and  compelled  the 
facing  of  new  and  grave  problems,  but  a  few  statistics 
will  help  us  in  some  measure  to  appreciate  the  magnitude 
of  the  revolution  social,  intellectual,  and  moral,  which 
by  the  matchless  power  of  the  Spirit  and  the  Word  has 
been  wrought.  The  missionary  force  numbers  96,  of 
whom  37  are  ordained,  with  7  native  ministers  and  437 
other  native  helpers.  The  churches  contain  8,572  com- 
municants, while  30,000  adherents  are  identified  with 
the  mission.  Paramaribo,  the  chief  city,  is  a  stronghold 
for  the  Gospel.  More  than  half  of  the  colony  is  con- 
nected with  the  Moravian  congregations,  and  since,  be- 
sides these,  there  are  some  20,000  Lutherans,  Reformed, 
Episcopalians,  etc.  Dutch  Guiana  may  now  fairly  be 
called  Christian. 

It  was  considerably  more  than  a  century  later  before 
the  second  assault  was  made  upon  this  great  kingdom  of 
darkness.  The  extreme  southern  point,  Magellan's  Land 
of  Fire,  was  selected  as  the  most  desirable  location  for  a 
mission.  The  immediate  results  were  tragic  to  the  ter- 
rible, so  that  abundant  opportunity  was  afforded  to  the 
indifferent  and  worldly-wise  to  cry  out,  "  failure,"  and 
"  waste."  And  yet,  not  to  know  the  story  of  Allen 
Gardiner,  is  to  have  missed  one  of  the  most  pathetic  and 
thrilling  and  inspiring  narratives  ever  put  upon  paper, 
and  also,  judged  by  the  New  Testament,  the  Divine  test, 
one  of  the  most  glorious  achievements  which  have  at- 
tended the  spread  of  the  kingdom.  The  childhood  of 
this  notable  saint  and  martyr  was  prophetic  of  mature 
years,  for  he  used  often  to  sleep  upon  the  ground  "  be- 
cause he  intended  to  travel,  and  would  inure  himself  to 
hardship."  Entering  the  British  navy,  he  voyaged  the 


SPANISH    AMERICA.  373 

whole  world  over,  taking  careful  note  of  the  condition 
and  needs  of  the  various  peoples,  and  while  witnessing 
the  heathen  worship  in  a  Chinese  temple  received  the 
impulse  which  controlled  the  residue  of  his  life.  His 
wife  dying  in  1834,  he  soon,  and  with  all  his  might,  de- 
termined "  to  become  the  pioneer  of  a  mission  to  the 
most  abandoned  pagans."  South  Africa  was  his  first 
field,  but  the  Zulu  war  soon  breaking  out  he  was  compelled 
to  flee,  barely  escaping  with  his  life.  A  way  of  entrance 
was  sought  to  New  Guinea,  but  sought  in  vain  ;  and  then 
South  America  was  fixed  upon.  Three  of  the  principal 
English  missionary  societies  were  importuned  to  send 
him  thither,  but  all  declined.  He  assayed  to  herald  the 
glad  tidings  upon  the  western  coast,  and  again  in  the 
northern  portion,  but  only  to  be  baffled.  Returning  to 
England  for  assistance,  at  length  the  Patagonian  Mission- 
ary Society  was  formed,  and  thrice  over  Gardiner  led  a 
forlorn  hope  to  Tierra  del  Fuego  to  gain  a  foothold  in 
that  dreary  and  dreadful  waste.  Finally  in  1850,  when 
everybody  but  himself  was  utterly  disheartened,  with  un- 
conquerable faith  he  tugged  away  until  ^1,000  were 
secured  to  fit  out  yet  another  expedition.  And  since  to 
undertake  to  dwell  upon  land  among  such  incorrigible 
thieves  was  to  run  daily  risk  of  losing  all  things,  while 
sudden  massacre  by  the  brutal  savages  would  be  unceas- 
ingly imminent,  four  boats  were  fitted  up  to  hold  the 
needful  supplies,  and  to  furnish  a  place  of  residence. 
With  six  companions  this  intrepid  soldier  of  the  cross 
was  transported  to  the  island,  and  left  with  provisions 
for  six  months.  By  a  most  calamitous  blunder,  the 
powder  and  shot  were  overlooked  and  forgotten,  and 
carried  away  by  the  vessel  which  brought  them,  so  that 
the  little  company  was  doomed  to  subsist  without  meat, 


374  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

nor  could  they  defend  themselves  against  attacks.  ' '  The 
climate  is  always  dreadful  with  frequent  rainy  squalls  in 
summer,  with  snow  and  sleet  in  winter.  The  sky  is 
seldom  clear  and  the  winds  are  ferocious."  Great 
suffering  presently  ensued.  In  a  tempest  the  smaller 
boats  were  lost,  and  the  anchor  to  one  of  the  larger  ones. 
Sometimes  protection  was  sought  from  the  intolerable 
cold  in  caves  so  damp  as  to  produce  rheumatism.  To 
fill  to  the  full  the  measure  of  disaster,  communication 
from  home  bringing  relief  was  delayed  beyond  all  ex- 
pectation, and  food  began  to  fail,  with  slow  starvation  as 
the  result.  They  wandered  up  and  down  the  coast, 
dying  one  after  another,  Gardiner  the  last  to  succumb. 
September  6th  was  the  fatal  day  for  him,  as  his  diary 
stated,  and  the  ship  bringing  supplies  did  not  arrive 
until  the  last  of  October.  Marks  upon  the  rocks,  and 
papers  fastened  here  and  there,  revealed  the  place  where 
the  bodies  lay  moldering.  And  what  sublimer  token 
can  be  found  than  faith  triumphant  in  the  darkest  hour  ? 
Hard  by  the  spot  where  this  hero  had  breathed  his  last 
his  feeble  hand  had  traced  Psalm  62  ;  5-8  :  "  My  soul 
wait  thou  only  upon  God,  for  my  expectation  is  from 
him,"  etc.  A  solemn  charge  was  also  left  to  his  friends 
not  to  neglect  the  object  for  which  he  had  gladly  sac- 
rificed his  life.  As  the  result  of  all,  the  South  American 
Missionary  Society  soon  came  into  being,  the  ship 
Allen  Gardiner  was  purchased,  and  other  bands  of  mis- 
sionaries were  despatched.  The  "failures"  were  not 
yet  over  and  one  entire  party  of  nine  was  murdered 
while  engaged  in  worship  without  the  least  suspicion  of 
danger.  This  catastrophe  befell  in  1859.  Already  the 
policy  was  adopted  which  ever  since,  and  with  the 
greatest  care,  has  been  pursued,  of  making  Kepple 


SPANISH  AMERICA.  375 

Island,  one  of  the  Falklands,  a  few  hundred  miles  to  the 
cast,  the  chief  seat  of  the  mission,  and  carrying  thither 
from  time  to  time  certain  of  the  better  class  of  the  Pata- 
gonian  men  and  women,  when  tamed,  civilized,  Chris- 
tianized, and  educated  somewhat,  to  be  returned  to  their 
homes  as  a  nucleus  for  work  among  their  friends. 
After  a  while  genuine  conversions  began  to  occur,  and 
such  has  been  the  general  transformation  that  this  field 
now  differs  little  from  any  other  located  in  the  midst  of 
a  degraded  people.  Even  so  calm  and  sagacious  an  ob- 
server as  Darwin  (not  to  say  prejudiced  and  sceptical), 
who  had  seen  much  of  the  Fuegians  when  in  their 
original  brutishness  and  ferocity,  and  as  he  judged,  the 
lowest  specimens  of  humanity — even  he  was  filled  with 
wonder  at  the  matchless  power  of  Christianity  there  dis- 
played, and  to  the  end  of  his  life  was  a  regular  con- 
tributor to  the  funds  of  the  society. 

We  pass  next  to  Brazil,  almost  equal  to  all  the  other 
South  American  states  combined,  for  it  covers  nearly 
half  the  area  of  the  continent,  and  holds  about  half  the 
population,  while  so  central  is  its  location  and  so  ex- 
tensive are  its  boundaries,  that  it  touches  every  other 
state,  Chili  only  excepted.  As  is  most  fitting,  therefore, 
much  the  largest  number  of  organizations  are  here  repre- 
sented, by  a  far  larger  force  of  missionaries.  And  it  was 
also  upon  the  soil  of  this  imperial  domain  that  the  first 
Protestant  attempt  was  made  to  proclaim  among  the 
heathen  the  Gospel  of  salvation.  This  was  in  1555,  two 
hundred  years  before  Carey  was  born.  Calvin  and 
Coligny,  with  the  French  Huguenots,  were  concerned  in 
it,  but  since  the  scheme  meant  colonization  much  more 
than  Christianization,  and  soon  came  to  an  end  in  dis- 
aster, we  may  dismiss  it  without  further  notice.  Two 


376  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

Methodists  are  found  at  work  in  Rio  Janeiro  as  far  back 
as  1836,  but  before  the  language  had  been  learned,  01 
anything  had  been  undertaken  in  behalf  of  the  natives, 
one  died  and  the  other,  on  account  of  crushing  financial 
troubles  at  home,  abandoned  the  field.  Two  years  later 
Dr.  Kalley,  a  Scotch  physician,  undertook  the  task  of 
evangelizing  the  same  city,  and  afterwards  extended  his 
labors  to  Pernambuco,  gathering  churches  and  establish- 
ing out-stations.  In  1859  the  Presbyterians  entered  the 
capital,  and  have  ever  since  held  on,  lengthening  the 
cords  and  strengthening  the  stakes.  Earnest  men  and 
women  have  gone  up  and  down  the  coast,  and  far  towards 
the  interior,  selecting,  one  after  another,  important 
centers,  like  Sao  Paulo,  Bahia,  Brotas,  Soracaba,  Cam- 
panha,  and  Rio  Grande  da  Sul,  and  around  each  open- 
ing clusters  of  preaching-places.  The  Southern  Presby- 
terians followed  in  1869,  occupying  such  strategic  points 
as  Pernambuco,  Campinas,  Bagagem,  etc.,  and  pushing 
out  into  Ceara,  Maranhao,  Alagoas,  and  other  provinces. 
In  1888,  in  response  to  a  general  desire  both  on  the  part 
of  the  missionaries  and  the  native  ministers,  the  work 
of  these  two  denominations  was  federated,  the  three 
presbyteries  were  readjusted  and  joined  in  the  Synod  of 
Brazil.  This  body  now  reports  87  missionaries  of  whom 
59  are  ministers,  65  churches  with  4,780  members,  383 
joining  last  year.  The  contributions  for  twelve  months 
amounted  to  $37,874.  The  Methodists  re-entered  this 
field  in  1876,  and  the  Southern  Baptists  came  in  1881. 
Bishop  Taylor  had  a  self-supporting  mission  at  Para ;  the 
Episcopalians  are  doing  somewhat ;  both  the  American 
Bible  Society,  and  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society 
supply  the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular,  and  the  South 
American  Missionary  Society  maintains  a  number  of 


SPANISH   AMERICA.  377 

chaplains  for  the  benefit  of  English-speaking  persons. 
At  Sao  Paulo  is  located  a  Protestant  college,  where  also 
is  the  seat  of  the  chief  law  school  of  Brazil,  and  a  Pres- 
byterian training  school  for  native  ministers  and  teach- 
ers. Such  in  briefest  outline  is  the  evangelizing  work 
undertaken  by  Protestant  Christendom  for  the  17,000,000, 
who  for  the  most  part  sit  in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of 
death.  Almost  all  the  missions  are  planted  upon  the 
coast,  or  near  it,  while  the  vast  interior  is  altogether  un- 
touched. 

The  Argentine  Republic  is  the  second  state  in  South 
America  for  size  and  population.  In  this  glance  both 
Uruguay  and  Paraguay  will  be  included,  since  for  our 
purpose  they  present  no  distinctive  features.  In  all  three 
the  Catholic  Church  is  established  by  law,  though  all 
other  churches  are  tolerated.  In  the  country  first  named, 
the  government  is  liberal,  and  education  and  public  im- 
provements are  fostered.  We  find  ourselves  again  in  the 
region  made  sacred  by  the  prayers  and  toils  and  suffer- 
ings of  Gardiner,  and  as  we  saw,  the  South  American 
Society  was  formed  to  carry  on  his  work.  Besides 
Keppel,  in  the  Falkland  Islands,  it  has  two  stations  near 
Cape  Horn,  Ooshooia,  and  Wollaston  recently  removed 
to  Tekeenika,  with  the  schooner  Allen  Gardiner  plying 
often  between,  and  is  represented  elsewhere  by  chaplains 
who  render  service  in  behalf  of  British  colonists.  The 
Methodists  entered  Argentina  in  1836,  beginning  work  in 
the  city  of  Buenos  Ayres,  and  since  have  extended  the 
theater  of  their  beneficent  work  into  Paraguay  and  Ura- 
guay,  as  well  as  far  back  towards  the  interior.  This  de- 
nomination is  represented  by  9  missionaries  with  their 
wives,  19  ordained  and  43  unordained  native  preachers, 
by  1,900  church  members,  by  probationers  and  others 


A   HUNDRED   YEARS  OF   MISSIONS. 

enough  to  make  a  total  of  10,000  adherents,  and  2,000 
pupils  in  the  schools.  The  American  Bible  Society  sup- 
plies efficient  co-operation. 

Let  Chili,  across  the  Andes,  come  next  into  view.  Its 
shape  is  most  peculiar.  Situated  between  the  mountains 
and  the  ocean,  it  stretches  from  Peru  to  southern  Pata- 
gonia, with  a  length  of  2,600  miles,  while  the  breadth 
varies  from  240  miles  down  to  but  forty.  Catholicism  is 
enthroned  as  the  state  religion,  but  the  law  grants  tol- 
eration to  Protestants.  Education  is  free,  and  schools 
are  provided  of  various  grades  up  to  a  university,  with 
departments  of  law,  medicine,  and  the  fine  arts.  The 
press  is  also  untrammeled.  The  Presbyterians  sent  mis- 
sionaries in  1873,  and  work  out  from  four  centers,  San- 
tiago, Valparaiso,  Concepcion,  and  Copiapo.  The  force 
now  consists  of  7  ministers,  6  of  them  with  wives,  6 
ordained  and  34  other  native  helpers.  In  the  9  churches 
are  426  members,  and  500  children  in  the  schools. 
Bishop  Taylor  opened  missions  in  1877,  with  flourishing 
church  and  school  work,  in  Santiago,  Concepcion,  Co- 
quimbo,  and  Iquique.  In  1878-89  he  sent  to  the  west 
coast  of  the  continent  for  his  self-supporting  work  26 
preachers,  with  9  male  and  46  female  teachers.  The 
American  Bible  Society  is  present  to  supply  the  printed 
Word,  and  the  chaplains  of  the  South  American  Society 
preach  in  their  mother  tongue. 

Bolivia  has  in  its  population  1,500,000  Mestizoes,  a 
mixture  of  Spanish  and  Indian,  and  1,000,000  Indians. 
The  Catholic  Church  is  established  by  law,  and  no  other 
may  hold  public  service  of  any  kind.  With  this  import- 
ant limitation,  religion  is  free.  The  intellectual  condi- 
tion appears  in  the  fact  that,  with  inhabitants  numbering 
§,500,000,  only  about  25,000  children  are  found  in  the 


SPANISH    AMERICA.  379 

schools.  The  American  Bible  Society  is  the  only  ex- 
ponent of  a  pure  Christianity. 

Peru  contains  350,000  uncivilized  Indians,  and  50,000 
Chinese  coolies,  and  of  the  population  remaining,  twenty- 
three  per  cent,  is  composed  of  a  mixture  of  white  races 
and  red.  The  constitution  prohibits  the  public  exercise  of 
any  but  the  Catholic  religion,  and  yet  this  clause  is  so 
far  disregarded  that  Jews  and  Anglicans  maintain  serv- 
ices in  Callao  and  Lima,  and  the  Methodists  are  at 
work  in  the  same  cities,  with  Rev.  T.  B.  Wood  as  pre- 
siding elder.  A  colporteur  of  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety also  pushes  his  work,  quietly  and  "  without  observa- 
tion." It  was  however  this  same  man,  F.  Penzotti,  who 
a  few  years  since  was  arrested  for  circulating  the  Word 
of  God  in  the  vernacular,  and  expiated  his  "  crime  "  by 
lying  for  months  in  prison. 

In  Venezuela,  with  the  Roman  Church  in  the  place  of 
civil  power,  other  faiths  are  "tolerated"  except  that 
"they  are  not  permitted  any  external  manifestation." 
Until  recently  the  only  form  of  missionary  toil  was  found 
in  the  circulation  of  the  Bible  in  Spanish  by  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Society. 

Colombia  is  in  a  religious  case  slightly  better,  for  here 
the  Catholics  suffer  Protestants  and  others  to  preach 
and  propagate  their  opinions  freely,  so  long  as  they  do 
not  go  "contrary  to  Christian  morals  nor  the  law." 
Under  the  gracious  protection  of  this  shield  the  Presby- 
terians entered  Bogota  in  1856.  Fierce  opposition  was 
aroused  at  once  on  the  part  of  the  jealous  priesthood,  but 
fortunately  the  civil  authorities  stood  by  the  missionaries, 
and  they  have  continued  to  this  day.  Political  revolu- 
tions have  hindered  much,  and  for  various  reasons  prog- 
ress has  been  slow.  With  7  ministers,  12  women,  and  6 


380  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

native  helpers,  4  stations  are  occupied,  3  churches,  with 
144  members,  have  been  formed,  and  250  children  are 
in  the  schools.  The  Bible  Society  is  a  stanch  helper. 

Ecuador  stands  last  in  more  senses  than  one.  The 
Catholic  Church  is  supreme  everywhere,  is  all  in  all. 
"The  constitution  excludes  all  other  creeds."  As  the 
name  implies  this  country  lies  under  the  equator,  and  so 
is  extremely  hot — for  all  heretics.  Not  China,  Japan, 
or  Korea,  was  ever  more  effectually  closed  against  the 
entrance  of  a  living  Gospel. 

In  summing  up  for  South  America,  before  proceeding 
northward,  we  must  not  fail  to  take  especial  notice  of  the 
exceedingly  prominent  part  played  by  the  two  great 
"Bible  societies,  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
The  one  has  6  colporteurs  constantly  at  work  while  the 
other  maintains  37  agencies  and  about  30  colporteurs, 
and  in  cash  donations  expends  upwards  of  $60,000  a 
year.  In  all,  between  the  Isthmus  and  the  Cape,  are 
found  383  male,  and  299  female  missionaries,  and  237 
native  ministers,  a  total  force  of  919.  But  this  is  only 
at  the  rate  of  one  Protestant  minister  to  every  100,000  of 
the  population.  Into  the  mission  churches  are  gathered 
37,840  communicants,  and  a  little  over  6,000  into  the 
schools.  A  liberal  estimate  would  make  the  adherents 
number  not  more  than  60,000.  Only  so  many,  out  of  a 
population  of  40,000,000,  or  but  one  out  of  666  in  any 
degree  associated  with  a  pure  and  intelligent  faith. 

CENTRAL  AMERICA. 

Central  America  can  be  dismissed  with  few  words.  As 
to  physical  characteristics,  climate,  and  population,  it  dif- 
fers but  little  from  its  neighbors  to  the  south  and  north, 
while  of  missionary  work  bestowed  there  is  next  to  none. 


SPANISH    AMERICA.  381 

The  five  little  republics,  which  are  grouped  together 
under  this  term,  are  sometimes  confederated,  some- 
times independent,  and  frequently  at  war  with  each 
other,  or  distracted  and  desolated  by  internal  strife. 
Great  Britain  has  a  crown  colony  in  this  same  region. 
The  following  table  will  show  the  area  and  population 
of  the  several  states. 


Guatemala, 
Nicaragua, 
Honduras, 
Costa  Rica, 
Salvador, 
British  Honduras, 

SQUARE  MILKS. 
46,800 

49,500 
46,400 
37,000 
7,225 

7.562 

INHABITANTS. 
1,460,000 
313,000 
432,000 
243,000 
900,900 
31,500 

Total,  I94»487  3,500,000 

Everywhere  the  people  are  Roman  Catholics,  in  Costa 
Rica  the  papacy  is  established  by  law,  but  in  all  the 
states  Protestantism  is  tolerated.  Only  two  denomina- 
tions are  represented  among  these  millions  of  Spaniards, 
Indians,  Negroes,  and  a  multitude  composed  of  a 
promiscuous  mixture  of  the  three.  Since  1847  the 
Moravians  have  sustained  a  mission  upon  the  Mosquito 
Coast  of  Nicaragua,  where  ever  since  the  days  of  the 
buccaneers,  every  conceivable  influence  which  makes  for 
evil  has  been  working  wickedness  and  shame.  Blue- 
fields  was  taken  as  a  center,  and  for  almost  a  half  cen- 
tury the  Brethren  have  been  patiently  founding  and 
building  all  manner  of  good  institutions  among  the  In- 
dians, delivering  them  from  bondage  to  their  gross 
vices  and  superstitions.  Traveling  from  station  to  sta- 
tion is  largely  by  water,  and  a  vessel  is  kept  for  the  pur- 
pose. Many  precious  lives  have  been  sacrificed  to  the 
tropical  and  malarial  climate,  and  to  overexhausting  la- 
bors, but  1,021  communicants,  5,248  baptized  adherents, 


382  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

and  634  children  in  the  schools,  stand  for  gains  much 
more  than  commensurate  with  the  cost.  Of  late  the 
government  has  given  permission  to  enter  the  interior. 

The  other  mission  in  Central  America  was  founded  in 
1883  by  the  Presbyterians,  and  is  located  in  Guatemala 
City,  the  capital  of  the  state  of  the  same  name,  about 
sixty  miles  from  the  seaport,  San  Jose.  The  first  mis- 
sionary, Rev.  John  C.  Hill,  was  sent  out  at  the  request 
of  President  Barrios,  who  also  paid  the  traveling  ex- 
penses of  his  family,  the  freight  charges  upon  furniture, 
as  well  as  purchased  the  equipment  necessary  for  the 
establishment  of  church  and  school  work.  But  the  path- 
way since  has  not  been  always  strewn  with  roses.  Let 
a  later  report  present  the  situation.  "Guatemala  as  a 
mission  field  is  encompassed  with  difficulties.  Of  the 
inhabitants  300,000  are  Ladinos,  people  of  mixed  blood, 
and  of  the  remainder  a  large  majority  are  of  the  in- 
digenous races,  many  of  them  descendants  of  the  ancient 
Toltecs,  and  constitute  the  coolies  and  beasts  of  bur- 
den of  the  country.  The  condition  of  the  people, 
socially,  morally,  and  religiously,  is  deplorable.  The 
first  house  of  worship  was  dedicated  in  1894  and  dur- 
ing the  year  following  two  churches  were  organized,  one 
of  Spanish-speaking,  and  the  other  of  English-speaking, 
persons.  Two  ministers  with  their  wives  carry  on  the 
work." 

MEXICO. 

Mexico  forms  the  third  general  division  of  Spanish 
America,  and  constitutes  the  New  Spain  of  former  days. 
Once  this  was  a  viceroyalty  of  imperial  proportions,  ex- 
tending along  the  Pacific  from  the  Isthmus  to  Puget 
Sound.  But  two-thirds  of  this  vast  territory  was  lost 


SPANISH    AMERICA.  383 

by  the  separation  of  Central  America,  the  secession  of 
Texas,  and  the  war  with  the  United  States  in  1845-7. 
The  present  area  is  about  770,000  square  miles.  The 
extreme  length  is  1,900  miles  upon  the  western  side, 
while  the  width  varies  from  1,000  miles  at  the  north,  to 
but  130  at  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuan tepee.  A  coast-line  of 
6,000  miles  affords  but  three  or  four  good  harbors.  The 
Tropic  of  Cancer  divides  the  land  into  nearly  equal 
parts.  But  the  climate  is  determined  less  by  distance 
from  the  equator,  than  by  certain  features  of  the  relief. 
The  surface  consists  mainly  of  a  plateau,  to  which  the 
ascent  is  quite  abrupt  from  the  low-lying  plains  along  the 
coast,  and  whose  general  elevation  varies  from  4,000  to 
8,000  feet.  Then,  from  this  table-land  rise  various 
mountain  ranges  to  12,000  feet  and  upwards,  at  least 
ten  extinct  volcanoes  exceed  16,000,  while  some,  like 
Orizaba  and  Popocatapetl,  approach  18,000.  Not  a  river 
is  to  be  found  of  any  considerable  value  for  navigation. 
Silver  has  always  been  Mexico's  prime  production.  A 
metaliferous  belt  of  extraordinary  richness  stretches 
southeastward  from  Sonora  to  Oajaca,  a  distance  of 
1,200  miles.  The  population  numbers  about  13,650,- 
ooo,  and  is  composed  of  Spaniards,  2,574,500;  Indians, 
5,149,000;  and  a  little  less  than  6,000,000,  a  mixture 
of  the  two.  In  large  part  as  a  result  of  three  centuries 
of  rigid  discipline  under  Castilians  and  the  Catholic 
Church,  the  Indians  are  peaceable,  docile,  and  fairly  in- 
dustrious. For  generations  they  were  esteemed  only  for 
their  silver-producing  capacity,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Spanish  crown,  by  a  ruthless  system  they  were  parcelled 
out  among  the  plantations,  and  the  mines,  and  whether 
held  to  service  above  ground,  or  below,  their  condition 
was  tantamount  to  slavery. 


384  A  HUNDRED    YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

The  earliest  European  settlements  in  Mexico  were 
made  almost  a  century  before  the  first  upon  the  northern 
Atlantic  coast.  And  Spanish  domination  lasted  exactly 
three  hundred  years,  or  from  the  death  of  Guatemozin  in 
1521,  to  the  departure  of  the  last  viceroy  in  1821.  The 
beginnings  of  the  struggle  for  independence  came  in 
1808,  and  when  that  revolution  had  reached  a  successful 
termination,  a  long  and  dreary  period  followed  of 
anarchy  and  strife,  but  on  the  whole,  with  steady  and 
substantial  gains  for  liberty  and  national  prosperity.  In 
1857  a  liberal  constitution  was  adopted,  which  after 
radical  revision  in  1873-4,  is  now  the  organic  law. 
When  the  republic  was  established,  it  also  came  to  pass 
that  the  Castilian  element  of  the  population  began  to 
lose  the  place  of  power  which  it  has  always  held,  while 
the  plebeian  Indians  began  to  rise  to  controlling  in- 
fluence in  the  state.  Moreover,  by  that  event  the  days 
were  numbered  of  the  tyrannical,  and  demoralizing, 
sway  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Until  1857  no  other 
faith  had  been  tolerated.  The  Jesuits  had  been  supreme, 
and  the  Inquisition  was  an  institution  honored  and 
revered.  One-third  of  all  the  real  estate  of  the  country 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  priesthood,  and  one-half  of  the 
city  of  Mexico  is  said  to  have  consisted  of  churches,  con- 
vents, and  other  ecclesiastical  structures  !  When  by  law 
religious  liberty  was  granted,  in  fact  nothing  of  the  kind 
existed,  and  it  was  not  until  after  Maximilian  was  de- 
throned and  executed,  in  1867,  that  the  great  victory  was 
fully  achieved.  Then  all  ecclesiastical  orders  were  sup- 
pressed, convents  were  emptied  of  their  occupants,  and 
all  superfluous  church  establishments  were  appropriated 
by  the  state.  These  wholesale  confiscations  amounted  to 
upwards  of  $300,000,000.  And  now  "  the  liberal  party 


SPANISH    AMERICA.  385 

has  strangled  the  church  and  stripped  it  of  every  pos- 
session. No  priest  dares  to  wear  a  cassock  in  public, 
and  in  politics  the  clergy  are  powerless,  while  parish 
schools  are  prohibited."  As  far  back  as  1886,  there 
were  in  existence  11,000  primary  schools,  with  600, ooc 
pupils,  and  it  was  estimated  that  not  far  from  2,500,000 
persons  were  able  to  read  and  write. 

"  The  Bible  was  borne  into  Mexico  by  General  Scott's 
army,"  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that,  by  the  direct 
and  indirect  results  of  the  war  with  the  United  States,  the 
day  of  spiritual  redemption  for  that  benighted  and  priest- 
ridden  country  was  hastened.  Within  ten  years  of  the 
close  of  that  lamentable  and  iniquitous  struggle,  a  con- 
stitution was  adopted  which  made  it  possible  for  Prot- 
estantism to  live  and  propagate  itself  within  the  bound- 
aries of  the  republic.  And  the  first  missionary  was  a 
woman,  Miss  Melinda  Rankin,  who  early  in  the  fifties 
established  a  school  in  Brownsville,  on  the  American 
side  of  the  Rio  Grande,  later  crossed  to  Matamoras,  and 
in  1866  began  work  in  Monterey.  With  money  raised 
by  herself,  she  trained  and  sent  out  colporteurs  to  dis- 
tribute the  Scriptures.  For  twenty  years  her  efforts  con- 
tinued, and  bore  abundant  fruit.  In  the  meantime  the 
American  Bible  Society  had  entered  the  field  with  its 
agents,  sending  the  first  one  in  1860,  and  ever  since  has 
stood  among  the  chief  of  evangelizing  forces  in  all  that 
region.  Last  year  33  colporteurs  were  actively  engaged, 
the  cash  contributions  for  the  Mexican  work  amounted 
to  almost  $26,000,  and  36,614  Bibles,  or  portions,  were 
distributed,  and  175,000  during  the  last  ten  years.  But 
the  full  measure  of  Miss  Rankin's  influence  has  not  yet 
been  set  forth.  For  it  was  through  her  that  the  attention 
of  Rev.  H.  A.  Riley  was  directed  towards  the  land  of 


386  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

the  Aztecs.  He  had  been  over  a  Spanish  congregation 
in  New  York  City,  and  was  sent  by  the  American  and 
Foreign  Christian!  Union  to  the  Mexican  capital  in  1869. 
Arriving  he  found  that  a  most  remarkable  preparation 
had  already  been  made.  Several  priests  had  months  be- 
fore openly  renounced  the  errors  and  corruptions  of 
Rome,  had  made  converts  to  their  new  convictions,  and 
were  ready  to  adopt  the  creed  and  ritual  of  Episcopacy. 
Soon  these  and  others  were  united  in  the  "  Church  of 
Jesus."  For  a  trifling  consideration  a  confiscated  church 
was  turned  over  for  their  uses.  But  this  shocking  re- 
ligious innovation  was  not  wrought  without  furious  oppo- 
sition from  the  papal  church.  The  excitement  cul- 
minated in  disturbances  so  violent  that  upwards  of  forty 
Protestants  lost  their  lives. 

The  time  had  now  arrived  for  the  American  churches, 
as  such,  to  begin  to  go  up  and  possess  the  land  for 
Christ.  And  two  decades  almost  cover  the  entire  period 
of  organized  missionary  effort.  The  Friends  crossed  the 
Rio  Grande  in  1871,  to  enter  upon  the  crusade  against 
ignorance,  superstition,  and  priestcraft.  In  1872  the 
Presbyterians  and  the  American  Board  sent  forth  their 
pioneers.  In  pursuance  to  the  action  of  the  General 
Assembly,  a  party  of  seven  proceeded  to  the  capital,  and 
found  a  large  body  of  believers  awaiting  their  arrival. 
Nor  was  it  long  before  solid  foundations  had  been  laid. 
The  next  year  Zacatecas  was  occupied,  and  from  these 
two  centers  enlargement  has  gone  steadily  on,  until  mis- 
sions have  been  opened  in  seventeen  of  the  twenty-seven 
states,  of  which  Mexico  is  composed.  Outbreaks,  and 
mobs,  and  murders,  have  by  no  means  been  wanting, 
but  in  spite  of  all,  the  churches,  and  schools,  and  the 
mission  press,  have  continued  to  diffuse  the  best  that 


SPANISH    AMERICA.  387 

Christianity  and  civilization  can  produce.  The  Presby- 
terians are  now  represented  by  10  men  and  14  women ; 
24  native  ministers,  31  licentiates  and  35  other  native 
helpers;  by  53  churches,  4,558  members,  of  whom  256 
were  received  last  year;  and  by  1,769  pupils  in  the 
schools.  The  American  Board  entered  from  the  west, 
sending  two  men  from  California  to  break  ground  in 
Guadalajara.  At  first  the  attempt  seemed  to  meet  with 
quite  general  favor,  though  the  priests  were  bitterly 
hostile.  The  next  year  an  out  station  was  opened  ninety 
miles  away,  at  Ahualulco,  where  presently  the  leading 
ecclesiastic  stirred  up  a  mob  to  set  upon  Mr.  Stevens. 
His  doors  were  broken  open,  and  all  the  goods  were 
stolen  or  destroyed,  he  himself  was  brutally  assassi- 
nated, with  mutilation,  and  one  of  the  converts  was  also 
killed.  A  succession  of  mishaps  followed  until  1882, 
when  after  reorganization  a  period  of  growth  set  in. 
During  the  year  just  named  Chihuahua  was  occupied, 
and  has  already  become  quite  a  stronghold  for  the  Gospel 
in  northern  Mexico.  Into  22  churches  1,121  members 
have  been  gathered. 

In  1873  the  Methodists,  both  North  and  South,  began 
to  lay  foundations,  the  former  beginning  in  the  metrop- 
olis, and  later  branching  out  into  such  cities  as  Guana- 
juato, Puebla,  Tlascala,  Oaxaca,  etc.,  in  eight  states; 
while  the  latter  have  invaded  no  less  than  seventeen 
states,  including  several  important  centers  of  population. 
These  two  denominations  report  respectively  5,549,  and 
7,988  members,  probationers  included.  The  Baptist 
Home  Missionary  Society  was  already  engaged  in  the 
same  region  and  in  1884  both  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention and  the  Associate  Reformed  Presbyterians  took 
up  their  share  of  the  burdens.  And  finally,  in  1888, 


388  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

the  Cumberland  Presbyterians  sent  in  a  force  of  mis- 
sionaries. Including  the  American  Bible  Society,  fifteen 
organizations  are  now  united  in  shedding  light  in  the 
midst  of  the  great  darkness.  In  the  City  of  Mexico 
alone,  with  its  350,000  inhabitants,  are  found  8  mis- 
sions, 1 8  congregations,  16  native  ministers,  13  day- 
schools,  and  3  boarding  schools  for  girls.  The  Meth- 
odists are  in  possession  of  a  building  which  was  once 
put  to  the  accursed  uses  of  a  dungeon  and  torture-room 
for  the  Inquisition.  In  1901  there  were  engaged  in 
behalf  of  the  13,500,000  Mexicans,  210  foreign  and  546 
native  workers,  distributed  among  98  centers,  and  469 
congregations.  In  the  churches  are  now  nearly  20,000 
communicants,  and  with  them  are  associated  enough  to 
make  at  least  50,000  adherents.  There  are  7  theological 
schools  with  124  students,  23  boarding,  and  164  com- 
mon schools,  with  over  7,000  pupils.  Eleven  Christian 
papers  are  published,  and  the  total  of  missionary  prop- 
erty approaches  to  $850,000  in  value.  These  results, 
representing  the  toil  of  only  thirty  years,  cannot  but  be 
regarded  as  reasonably  large,  and  full  of  encourage- 
ment, as  well  as  abundantly  worth  all  it  has  cost  to  gain 
them,  even  though  nearly  sixty  lives  have  been  de- 
stroyed by  bigotry  and  fanaticism.  The  entire  republic 
lies  open,  inviting  the  entrance  of  the  messengers  of 
peace,  and  if  the  churches  were  only  half  in  earnest, 
and  would  undertake  with  vigor  to  complete  the  occupa- 
tion of  every  state  in  the  north,  south,  east,  and  west, 
the  full  redemption  of  Mexico  would  soon  come. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS. 

THE  terra  as  here  employed,  relates  not  to  the  entire 
12,000,000  of  aborigines  dwelling  between  the  Arctic 
Ocean  and  Cape  Horn,  but  only  that  portion  to  be  found 
within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  and  the  Domin- 
ion of  Canada,  and  numbering  in  all,  probably,  not 
much  more  than  400,000.  Of  these  Alaska  contains 
about  35,000,  the  various  states  and  territories  of  the 
Union  250,000,  and  the  British  Possessions  125,000.  A 
former  chapter  told  in  outline  what  was  undertaken  in 
their  behalf  by  Eliot,  the  Mayhews,  Brainerd,  the  Mo- 
ravians, etc.,  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies, in  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States,  and  noted  the 
lamentable  fact  that  after  the  Revolution,  from  the  co- 
operation of  various  causes,  work  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  red  men  almost  entirely  ceased.  After  the  evil 
passions  excited  by  the  frequent  Indian  wars  (1750- 
1815)  had  died  out,  and  as  Christian  zeal  and  solicitude 
for  the  spiritually  needy  and  perishing  had  been  marvel- 
ously  quickened  by  the  revivals  which  marked  the  early 
decades  of  this  century,  once  more  attention  began  to  be 
turned  towards  the  heathen  at  home,  located  upon  the 
various  reservations,  or  hovering  upon  the  vast  frontier. 

The  Moravians,  with  Zeisberger  as  most  eminent  from 
first  to  last,  had  held  faithfully  on,  in  spite  of  almost  un- 
paralleled discouragements  and  disasters,  in  Ohio,  in 
Michigan,  in  Canada,  back  in  Ohio,  again  to  Canada, 

389 


390  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

and  finally  once  more  to  the  Muskingum,  though  only  to 
fail,  and  in  1824  to  relinquish  their  lands.  The  Amer- 
ican Board  early  planned  a  mission  to  the  Indians  in 
Canada,  but  the  war  of  1812-15  brought  the  project  to 
naught.  But  by  the  same  society,  in  1815-38,  Cyrus 
Kingsbury,  S.  A.  Worcester,  and  many  others  were  sent 
to  preach  the  Gospel  among  the  Cherokees  of  Georgia, 
the  Chickasaws,  the  Choctaws,  and  the  Osages  of  the 
southwest.  For  years  the  work  prospered.  Large  con- 
gregations were  gathered,  many  turned  to  the  Lord,  and 
large  advances  were  made  towards  civilization.  Mission 
Ridge  became  famous  in  those  days,  taking  its  name 
from  the  abundant  works  of  mercy  and  grace  performed 
upon  its  summit.  But,  as  has  so  often  happened  before 
and  since,  these  aborigines  were  in  the  way  of  white 
settlers,  their  lands  were  coveted,  and  in  utter  disregard 
of  their  rights  and  their  welfare,  after  various  exaspera- 
ting encroachments  they  were  finally  compelled  to  emi- 
grate to  the  far  west.  Out  of  16,000  who  made  the  en- 
forced exodus  in  one  body,  more  than  4,000  perished 
from  exposure  and  hunger  while  on  the  journey.  In  the 
long  and  bitter  struggle  which  preceded,  the  missionaries 
had  taken  sides  with  their  converts,  protesting  against 
their  wrongs,  and  two  of  them,  for  righteousness'  sake, 
lay  for  fifteen  months  in  a  Georgia  penitentiary.  Dur- 
ing the  same  period  other  tribes  were  visited  with  the 
message  of  salvation  at  Mackinaw,  Green  Bay,  etc.,  and 
in  1834  a  mission  was  commenced  among  the  Dakotas 
(Sioux)  on  the  upper  Mississippi,  not  far  from  where 
Minneapolis  now  stands.  Later  the  central  stations  were 
located  upon  the  upper  Minnesota,  with  Messrs.  Riggs 
and  Williamson  as  devoted  leaders  in  labor  and  endur- 
ance. After  thirty  years  had  passed,  and  when  churches 


THE  AMERICAN   INDIANS.  39! 

and  schools  were  prosperous,  and  many  substantial  re- 
sults for  Christianity  and  civilization  had  been  gained, 
of  a  sudden,  and  instigated  wholly  by  the  pagan  Indians, 
the  dreadful  "Outbreak,"  occurred  of  1862,  attended 
by  wide-spread  conflagration  and  massacre,  and  ending 
in  the  removal  of  the  Dakotas  from  the  state.  It  is 
pleasant  to  recall  that  not  a  Christian  Indian  was  impli- 
cated in  the  deeds  of  violence  and  blood,  while  not  a 
few  of  them  gave  timely  warning  to  their  white  friends, 
and  the  missionary  families  were  piloted  across  the  vast 
prairies  to  places  of  safety. 

But  already  had  the  messengers  of  glad  tidings  crossed 
the  Continental  Divide,  and  made  their  proclamation 
upon  the  remote  Pacific  coast.  The  origin  of  missions 
beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains  is  connected  with  one  of 
the  most  pathetic  incidents  on  record  in  the  history  of 
the  Kingdom,  and  well  illustrates  how,  at  least  some- 
times, the  heathen  mind  in  its  darkness  is  stirred  with  deep, 
though  vague  longings  and  feelings  after  God,  if  haply 
it  may  find  Him.  When,  just  as  the  century  was  open- 
ing, Lewis  and  Clark,  first  of  civilized  men,  crossed  from 
the  head  waters  of  the  Missouri  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia,  among  the  rest,  they  and  some  members  of 
their  party,  in  telling  the  natives  about  the  wonders  of 
the  East,  told  them  also  of  the  religion  of  the  whites,  and 
in  particular,  of  God's  Book  of  books.  Before  the  ex- 
pedition returned  a  request  was  made  that  missionaries 
might  be  sent,  though  to  this  no  sort  of  attention  seems 
to  have  been  paid.  It  is  said  that  fur  traders,  who  soon 
after  entered  this  region,  gave  similar  information  to  the 
Indians,  but  that  certain  among  them,  taking  advantage 
of  the  desires  excited,  sold  cards  to  the  simple-minded 
savages,  alleging  that  these  were  leaves  from  the  Bible. 


392  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

Some  of  the  Cayuses  were  so  wrought  upon  that  they 
began  to  meet  upon  the  Sabbath  to  worship  the  unknown 
God.  Year  after  year  passed,  but  they  waited  and 
longed  in  vain  for  the  appearance  of  teachers.  And 
finally  the  Nez  Perces  despatched  a  delegation  of  four, 
two  aged  chiefs,  and  two  braves  in  their  prime,  to  make 
the  journey  of  over  3,000  miles  to  St.  Louis,  to  bear 
their  petition  for  some  one  to  be  sent  to  point  out  to 
them  the  way  of  life.  Mr.  Clark  was  now  Indian  commis- 
sioner, and  the  message  was  communicated  to  him,  but, 
for  reasons  not  known,  received  no  notice  whatever. 
Weeks  went  by  in  perplexity  and  disappointment,  half 
the  number  died,  and  a  third  one  on  the  return  journey, 
but  not  a  word  of  encouragement  came  from  any  quarter. 
A  little  later,  however,  something  of  this  strange  story 
reached  the  ears  of  the  Christian  public,  and  the  Meth- 
odist Church  sent  Jason  Lee  and  a  missionary  party  to 
Oregon  in  1833,  and  three  years  afterwards  the  American 
Board  commissioned  Dr.  Whitman  and  Mr.  Spaulding 
for  the  same  field.  These  were  among  the  very  earliest 
to  make  their  way  through  the  South  Pass,  and  pushed 
on  to  the  valley  of  the  Willamette.  Dr.  W.  soon  became 
one  of  the  most  important  factors  in  securing  to  the 
United  States  that  whole  vast  region,  whose  ownership 
was  then  in  dispute,  and  bent  on  this  patriotic  errand, 
ventured  a  trip  in  mid-winter,  on  horseback,  across  the 
mountains  with  incredible  suffering  and  the  imminent 
risk  of  his  life,  and  proceeded  to  Washington  to  conjure 
the  authorities  not  to  heedlessly  fling  away  such  a  price, 
less  national  treasure.  Quite  a  body  of  missionaries 
were  soon  engaged  among  the  Cayuses,  and  Nez  Perces. 
Mills  were  built,  schools  were  opened,  and  the  story  of 
divine  love  was  told  so  effectually  that  thousands  of  con- 


THE    AMERICAN   INDIANS.  393 

verts  were  gathered.  And  then,  all  without  warning, 
came  overwhelming  disaster  in  the  massacre  of  1847,  in 
which  Dr.  Whitman,  his  wife,  his  assistant,  and  six 
others  fell  victims,  while  nearly  fifty  were  taken  captive. 
Even  yet  the  cause  of  this  terrible  outburst  of  Indian 
fury  is  unknown,  but  is  widely  believed  in  some  way  to 
have  been  connected  with  the  then  recent  occupation  of 
the  country  by  the  United  States,  and  the  consequent  re- 
moval of  the  agents  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  who 
had  long  been  in  possession.  The  mission  was  broken 
up  for  years,  and  when  at  length  resumed,  was  presently 
turned  over  to  other  hands,  and  with  excellent  results  has 
ever  since  been  maintained.  As  settlers  crowded  in, 
other  stations  were  opened  by  various  organizations,  at 
points  here  and  there,  from  the  British  line  to  Mexico. 

The  beginning  of  Methodist  missions  among  the  In- 
dians was  mentioned  in  a  former  chapter,  and  was  made 
by  a  Negro  in  behalf  of  the  savage  Wyandots  on  the 
upper  Sandusky.  Through  converts  there  gathered  the 
Gospel  was  carried  in  1820  to  the  Ojibways  of  Canada. 
In  after  years  ten  stations  were  maintained,  which  were 
eventually  transferred  to  the  Canadian  Conference.  Not 
far  from  the  same  date,  Methodist  missionaries  made 
their  appearance  among  the  Creeks,  Choctaws,  and  Cher- 
okees,  and  at  the  end  of  about  twenty  years  had  gained 
some  2,000  members,  but  then  followed  the  troubles  and 
excitements  which  ended  in  the  expulsion  of  these  tribes, 
and  most  serious  damage  to  the  work  of  the  Gospel. 
Though  followed  to  their  new  homes  in  the  Indian  Ter- 
ritory by  their  religious  teachers  and  pastors,  such  suspi- 
cion and  hate  had  been  engendered  that  for  a  long  time 
scarcely  anything  could  be  done.  At  the  present  day 
this  denomination  has  an  Indian  Conference  with  2,000 


394  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

members.  When  the  Methodist  Church  was  divided,  in 
1845,  t^6  Southern  branch  became  heir  to  the  work  in 
the  Indian  Territory,  and  after  fifty  years  is  able  to 
report  that  the  churches  are  largely  self-supporting.  At 
quite  an  early  date  the  Baptists  undertook  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  aborigines  in  New  York,  and  after- 
wards in  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  as  well  as  some  of  the 
tribes  in  the  Indian  Territory,  and  still  carry  on  the 
work,  though  now  as  a  part  of  home  missions.  The 
Southern  Baptists  also  occupy  the  field  last  named. 
So  far  towards  being  Christian  has  the  Territory  be- 
come, that  out  of  a  population  of  80,000,  not  less  than 
18,521,  or  25  per  cent.,  of  the  population  are  communi- 
cants in  the  churches;  there  are  785  church  organiza- 
tions, while  services  are  sustained  in  422  houses  of  wor- 
ship and  308  halls. 

The  Episcopal  Church  first  carried  the  Gospel  to 
the  Oneidas  in  1815,  ten  years  later  extended  the  work 
to  Wisconsin,  but  it  was  not  until  1860  that  much  was 
undertaken  in  a  vigorous  effectual  way.  The  Dakotas 
of  the  upper  Minnesota  were  now  visited  with  the  Word 
of  life,  and  presently  Bishop  Whipple  appears  upon  the 
scene,  to  enter  on  his  long  career  of  most  loving  and  un- 
wearied service.  No  voice  has  been  lifted  oftener  or  to 
better  purpose  than  his  in  pleading  the  cause  of  the  In- 
dians, and  in  crying  out  against  the  iniquities  which 
have  been  practised  upon  them.  The  agencies  at  Leech 
Lake,  Red  Lake,  and  White  Earth  have  been  in  part 
the  theater  of  his  toils.  And  in  later  years  Bishop  Hare, 
among  the  Indians  of  Dakota,  has  proved  himself  a  most 
worthy  coadjutor.  The  Presbyterians,  separating  from 
the  American  Board  in  1870,  took  the  Oregon  missions, 
an«J  proceeded  to  open  others  in  the  southwest  among  the 


THE   AMERICAN   INDIANS.  395 

tribes  of  the  Indian  Territory,  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
and  California,  and  also  in  Dakota.  And  the  American 
Missionary  Association  has  several  stations  among  the 
Sioux.  These  three  organizations  together  have  gath- 
ered out  of  this  single  tribe,  the  wildest  and  fiercest  of 
all,  upwards  of  6,000  communicants,  and  a  number  of 
native  pastors  have  been  trained  and  set  over  the  peo- 
pie. 

Our  British  brethren  have  not  been  behind,  in  labors 
of  love  in  behalf  of  the  red  men  inhabiting  the  northern 
portion  of  the  continent.  And  to  their  efforts  this  im- 
portant advantage  has  providentially  been  accorded. 
With  a  settled  Indian  policy,  and  with  treatment  on  the 
whole  rational  and  righteous,  Indian  wars  have  been  rare 
indeed,  and  so  the  work  of  evangelization  has  seldom 
suffered  serious  interruption.  The  Canadian  Presby- 
terians have  gathered  about  400  into  their  churches.  The 
Methodists  sustain  missionaries  in  the  eastern,  central, 
and  western  provinces  of  the  Dominion,  and  to  the  nunv 
ber  of  over  100 ;  the  annual  expenditure  is  more  than 
£50,000,  while  the  nearly  5,000  church  members  are 
organized  into  eight  conferences. 

But  the  greater  part  of  the  Indian  work,  at  least  if 
judged  by  the  extent  of  territory  covered,  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  English  Church  Society.  The  region  occupied  is 
mainly  hyperborean,  and  largely  arctic.  The  beginning 
was  made  in  1826  upon  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  not 
far  from  Lake  Winnepeg,  a  point  then  almost  at  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  Since  then  steady  enlargement  has  been 
made,  until  now  six  grand  divisions  are  found,  extending 
through  eight  dioceses.  The  mere  names  are  enough  to 
make  one  shiver  and  shudder.  Moosonee  lies  upon  the 


396  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

east,  south,  and  west,  of  Hudson's  Bay.  Rupert's  Land 
and  Qu'Appelle  is  in  and  about  Manitoba.  Saskatche- 
wan to  the  north  of  the  last,  and  Calgary  to  the  west,  lie 
on  the  flanks  of  the  Rockies.  Athabasca  lies  to  the 
north  of  Calgary,  with  Mackenzie  River  to  the  north  of 
that  and  extending  to  the  Polar  Sea,  while  in  the  ex- 
treme northwest,  across  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  found 
Selkirk,  bordering  upon  Alaska,  and  including  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Yukon.  Mackenzie  River  is  the  "  largest, 
most  desolate,  most  sterile,  and  most  frigid  of  them  all." 
Travel  is  on  foot,  by  canoe,  by  sledge,  or  on  snow- 
shoes.  Ten  months  may  pass  without  letters  or  other 
communication  from  the  civilized  world,  while  for 
companions  only  Eskimos  are  to  be  had,  or  other  savages 
as  filthy  and  groveling.  And  this  statement  relating  to 
Moosonee  will  tell  something  of  what  it  costs  to  carry  the 
Gospel  to  those  regions  :  "In  March,  Mr.  Lofthouse 
visited  York  Factory,  walking  the  whole  distance,  nearly 
one  hundred  and  seventy  miles,  in  five  days.  There  he 
spent  Easter,  about  sixty  Indians  coming  for  services, 
several  of  them  traveling  eighty  or  a  hundred  miles. 
No  one  in  England  can  conceive  what  walking  forty- 
three  or  forty-four  miles  for  four  consecutive  days  on 
snowshoes  means,  and  at  night  sleeping  under  a  tree, 
with  the  skies  for  a  covering.  My  feet  were  so  blistered 
that  for  nearly  a  week  I  could  only  hobble  around." 
Surely  if  anybody,  men  like  Bishop  Bompas,  and  Bishop 
Horden  who  from  1854  until  his  death  a  few  years 
since,  gladly  endured  exile  for  Christ's  sake  on  the 
bleak  shores  of  Hudson's  Bay,  are  entitled  to  the  meed 
of  sainthood.  The  Church  Society  reports  69  stations 
in  this  boundless  field,  held  by  60  European  and  8  na- 
tive clergymen,  and  a  total  missionary  force  of  244.  The 


THE   AMERICAN   INDIANS.  397 

communicants  number  2,901,  and  the  adherents  14,076. 
If  we  add  those  gathered  by  the  Methodists,  and  Pres- 
byterians, the  Indian  communicants  in  Canada,  number 
8,301. 

But  the  most  unique,  and  in  many  respects  the  most 
remarkable  attempt  to  evangelize  the  aborigines  of  the 
Dominion  belongs  to  the  Northwest  Coast,  at  first  in 
British  Columbia,  and  since  removed  to  Alaska.  This 
also  originated  with  the  Church  Society,  which  in  1857 
commissioned  William  Duncan,  a  layman,  and  sent  him 
forth  via  Cape  Horn.  Stopping  at  Vancouver  he  heard 
nothing  but  words  to  discourage  and  terrify,  but  kept 
on,  and  in  due  time  was  set  down  at  Fort  Simpson. 
Several  tribes  of  savages  of  the  Tsimshean  family  dwelt 
in  the  vicinity,  and  he  soon  had  a  taste  of  their  fiendish- 
ness  in  certain  orgies  performed  just  outside  the  walls, 
lasting  several  days,  attended  by  all  manner  of  drunken 
excesses,  including  several  murders,  and  a  cannibal  feast 
upon  raw  flesh.  For  months  he  did  not  dare  to  risk  his 
life  among  those  he  had  come  to  turn  to  righteousness, 
but  busied  himself  learning  their  language.  At  length  a 
visit  was  ventured,  and  the  story  of  the  Gospel  was  told. 
Later  it  was  found  possible  to  open  a  school  for  children 
and  adults,  and  later  still  the  warriors  united  to  build  a 
schoolhouse.  Such  was  the  genius  of  the  man,  so  full 
was  his  heart  of  love,  so  manifold  and  so  unwearied  were 
his  efforts  to  do  them  good,  and  that  upon  the  material 
as  well  as  spiritual  side,  that  within  a  year  he  had  won 
admirers,  and  had  made  not  a  few  fast  friends.  And 
yet  on  several  occasions  he  narrowly  escaped  death  from 
the  hate  of  confirmed  evil-doers,  and  especially  from  the 
medicine  men  (shamans),  by  whom  he  was  regarded  as 
a  dangerous  rival.  After  long  pondering,  Mr.  Duncan 


398  A  HUNDRED  YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

was  convinced  that  it  was  necessary  to  separate  from  their 
heathen  surroundings  all  such  as  were  disposed  to  follow 
his  teaching  and  counsel,  and  so  undertook  to  found  a 
colony  with  strict  rules  and  regulations.  Several  hun- 
dred were  found  ready  to  remove  some  twenty  miles 
down  the  coast,  when,  in  1862,  all  the  preparations  had 
been  completed  to  lay  the  foundations  of  Metlakahtla, 
and  the  number  steadily  increased,  until  the  village  con- 
tained upwards  of  a  thousand  inhabitants.  He  himself 
filled  the  office  of  civil  magistrate,  with  power  to  enforce 
the  law,  a  council  was  chosen  by  popular  vote,  and  a 
force  of  constables  was  maintained.  A  tax  was  levied 
of  a  blanket  for  each  adult  male,  and  a  shirt  for  each 
youth.  Roads  and  wharves  were  constructed,  slides  for 
canoes,  drains,  and  houses  for  the  entertainment  of 
strange  Indians.  Among  the  institutions  were  a  fire 
brigade,  a  brass  band,  a  rifle  company,  and  a  two-gun 
battery.  The  rude  settlers  were  taught  improved  methods 
of  fishing  and  hunting,  and  in  order  to  aid  in  exporting 
what  was  produced,  a  schooner  was  purchased,  ex- 
changed later  for  a  steamer,  which  plied  up  and  down 
the  coast.  A  soap  factory  was  opened,  and  a  store  on 
the  joint-stock  plan,  with  a  savings  bank  attached. 
Weaving  was  taught,  as  well  as  carpentry,  shoe-making, 
brick-making,  blacksmithing,  etc.  To  crown  all,  a 
saw-mill  was  built  to  run  by  water-power.  When  this 
project  was  first  broached,  an  aged  ex-cannibal  exclaimed : 
"If  it  is  true  that  the  missionary  can  make  water  saw 
wood,  I  will  see  it  and  then  die."  Then  the  huts  were 
exchanged  for  two-story  dwellings,  clap-boarded,  and 
shingled,  and  supplied  with  chimneys,  cooking  stoves,  bed- 
•teads,  window-curtains,  clocks,  and  some  even  with  pic- 
tures upon  the  walls.  Two  schoolhouses  were  constructed 


THE  AMERICAN   INDIANS.  /          399 

of  size  sufficient  to  accommodate  seven  hundred,  and  a 
town  hall  large  enough  to  hold  the  entire  population. 
But  the  church  was  easily  the  chef  ttocitvre  of  toil  and 
skill.  The  material  was  yellow  cedar,  a  graceful  spire, 
with  belfry  and  bell,  were  in  place.  The  seating 
capacity  was  twelve  hundred.  Groined  arches  were 
overhead,  there  were  stained  windows,  a  carved  pulpit, 
organ  and  choir,  and  Brussels  carpet  in  the  aisles — in 
short  all  the  appointments  of  a  well- furnished  Christian 
sanctuary.  And  as  the  crowning  wonder,  from  foun- 
dation to  capstone  everything  was  wrought  by  native 
hands  !  The  cost  of  all  these  improvements  was  not  far 
from  £100,000,  a  part  of  which  came  from  generous 
friends  in  England,  but  the  bulk  was  derived  from 
various  business  transactions  in  which  Mr.  Duncan  was 
leader  and  helper. 

All  along  the  school  was  maintained,  and  so  the  young 
were  trained  to  intelligence,  industry,  and  good  morals. 
Nor  was  the  religious  side  of  character  and  life  in  the 
least  neglected,  in  the  multitude  of  schemes  for  the  ma- 
terial betterment  of  the  natives.  Some  Chilcats,  who 
had  paid  a  visit  to  the  village,  took  home  incredible  ac- 
counts of  how  they  had  found  there  a  body  of  "  Indians 
who  had  become  white,  could  talk  on  paper,  and  hear 
paper  talk,  wore  white  folks'  clothes,  and  lived  in  houses 
with  windows ;  had  forsaken  their  medicine  men  and  no 
longer  ate  dog's  flesh,  or  killed  each  other."  When  the 
schooner  made  her  trips  down  the  coast,  it  was  nothing 
unusual  for  two  hundred  letters  to  go,  written  by  Indian 
hands.  And,  as  the  supreme  proof  of  the  presence  of 
divine  power,  when  only  a  year  after  Metlakahtla  was 
founded,  the  Bishop  of  British  Columbia  visited  the  mis- 
•ion,  after  several  days  spent  in  examining  candidates, 


400  A  HUNDRED   YEARS  OF  MISSIONS. 

fifty-six  witnessed  such  a  good  confession  that  they  were 
baptized.  The  next  year  fifty-five  more  were  admitted 
to  the  church,  eighty-four  others  in  1871,  while  by  1879 
no  less  than  579  adults,  and  410  children,  had  been 
baptized,  and  also  137  couples  had  been  joined  in  Chris- 
tian marriage.  Other  helpers  came,  and  other  stations 
were  opened  upon  the  same  general  basis.  After  twenty- 
five  years  of  such  exhausting  toils,  crowned  with  such 
striking  successes,  it  is  sad  to  be  obliged  to  record  that 
serious  differences  of  judgment  and  conviction  arose  be- 
tween this  devoted  schoolmaster-missionary  and  the 
great  society  which  had  sent  him  out.  For  years  excite- 
ment, and  not  a  little  ill-feeling,  pervaded  the  settle- 
ment, and  at  times  the  entire  work  seemed  to  be  in  the 
greatest  jeopardy.  And  when  at  length  no  place  for 
compromise  appeared,  by  Mr.  Duncan  and  the  entire 
body  of  Metlakahtlans  it  was  decided  to  forsake  their 
entire  possessions,  houses,  public  buildings,  and  their 
contents,  and  remove  across  the  line  into  Alaska,  which 
fortunately  was  not  far  away.  Upon  application  at 
Washington,  Annette  Island  was  assigned  to  these  exiles, 
and  in  the  autumn  of  1887  the  painful  exodus  was  made, 
and  the  foundations  of  New  Metlakahtla  were  laid.  The 
location  is  described  as  delightful,  and  admirably  well 
chosen ;  the  population  is  nearly  as  large  as  it  was  in  the 
palmiest  days ;  signs  of  progress  appear  on  every  side, 
and  the  future  is  full  of  hope.  Such,  in  briefest  outline, 
is  the  story,  which  in  its  details  reads  like  a  romance, 
from  the  first  chapter  to  the  last,  and  proves  once  more 
that  sober  truth  may  be  stranger  than  baldest  fiction. 
Metlakahtla  is  a  name  every  way  worthy  to  stand  in  the 
same  category  with  Serampore,  Tranquebar,  Kuruman, 
or  any  other  illustrious  scene  of  apostolic  labors  in 


THE  AMERICAN   INDIANS.  4OI 

heathen  lands,  while  the  most  remarkable  results  of  evan- 
gelistic toil  there  achieved  enable  us  to  gain  a  glimpse 
of  the  signs  and  wonders  possible  to  the  Gospel,  in  the 
midst  of  difficulties  most  appalling,  when  Divine  grace 
co-operates  with  human  qualities  of  a  high  order,  when 
to  boundless  devotion  and  heroism  are  also  joined 
boundless  good  sense,  breadth  of  view,  and  genius  for 
invention  and  leadership.  Well  might  Lord  Dufferin, 
then  Governor  General  of  Canada,  exclaim  that  he 
"could  find  no  words  to  express  his  astonishment "  at 
what  he  saw.  And  Charles  Hallock  wrote  :  "  Metla- 
kahtla  is  truly  the  full  realization  of  the  missionaries' 
dream  of  aboriginal  restoration."  And  N.  H.  R.  Daw- 
son,  Commissioner  of  Education :  ' '  The  story  is  one 
of  the  wonders  of  the  age."  And  Sheldon  Jackson : 
"  There  are  few  chapters  in  missionary  history  more  full 
of  romance  or  more  wonderful." 

As  for  Alaska  and  its  30,000  Indians  there  is  not  much 
to  say.  Only  a  icw  years  have  elapsed  since  the  first 
Gospel  messenger  was  despatched  to  make  proclamation 
of  Christ  to  the  tew  tribes  dwelling  upon  the  coast,  and 
along  the  streams.  With  a  large  part  of  this  region 
communication  is  infrequent  and  difficult.  The  Presby- 
terians began  at  Fort  Wrangel  in  1877,  and  from  the 
tiny  seed  then  planted  have  grown  7  churches  with  868 
native  communicants,  and  about  750  children  in  the 
schools.  The  Moravians  located  a  mission  upon  the 
Kuskokwim  in  1885,  and  the  Episcopalians  another  upon 
the  Yukon  the  year  following.  About  the  same  time  en- 
tered also  the  Methodists,  the  Baptists,  the  Friends,  and 
also  some  missionaries  sent  by  the  Swedish  Mission 
Union.  But  in  1889  came  a  call  for  beginnings  much 


4O2  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

further  to  the  north  and  among  the  Eskimos  dwelling  to 
the  north  and  east  of  Bering  Straits.  In  response,  the 
American  Missionary  Association  chose  Cape  Prince  of 
Wales,  the  Episcopalians  Point  Hope,  220  miles  beyond, 
and  the  Presbyterians  Point  Barrow,  310  miles  further 
still,  and  the  most  northern  point  on  the  mainland  of  the 
continent.  The  heroes  who  hold  this  outpost  are  4,000 
miles  to  the  north  of  San  Francisco,  far  beyond  the 
Arctic  Circle,  and  so  near  the  pole  that  sometimes  the 
summer  passes  without  the  ice  thawing  sufficiently  to  al- 
low a  vessel  to  penetrate  so  far.  How  dreary  are  the 
winters,  and  the  natives  how  filthy,  and  stupid,  and  vile. 
But  even  here  the  Gospel  is  a  power  unto  salvation. 
The  work  of  evangelization  is  carried  on  by  1 1  societies 
through  128  missionaries  (of  whom  62  are  women),  and 
a  native  force  of  37.  More  than  50  centers  are  held, 
into  the  churches  more  than  2,000  members  have  been 
gathered  and  nearly  600  into  the  schools.  In  recent 
years  these  ends  of  the  earth  have  come  to  world-wide 
fame  through  the  discovery  of  rich  deposits  of  gold,  and 
hence  Alaska,  which  at  the  time  of  its  purchase,  in  1867, 
seemed  to  most  so  utterly  worthless,  bids  fair  to  stand  in 
history  in  the  same  category  with  California,  Australia, 
and  the  Witwatersrand.  And  all  the  indications  are 
that  at  no  distant  day  a  large  population  will  be  found  in 
this  Ultima  Thule  of  the  Northwest. 


XXI. 

A   HUNDRED   YEARS   AGO,    AND   NOW. 

THE  century  mark  having  so  recently  been  passed,  a 
chapter  is  eminently  in  order  which  shall  present  the 
striking  contrast  that  exists  between  the  world  as  it  was 
a  century  since  and  as  it  is  to-day,  including  not  only 
the  state  of  missions  but  of  religion  in  general,  as  well 
as  other  subjects  too  often  deemed  "secular"  and  hence 
of  no  pertinence  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  among  men. 
Let  us  take  up,  in  the  briefest  way  possible,  the  conti- 
nents one  after  another  beginning  with  our  own,  and 
note  the  changes  so  many,  so  manifold,  and  so  marvel- 
ous at  every  point  all  the  earth  over,  in  lands  Christian 
as  well  as  pagan. 

In  the  year  of  grace  1800  British  America  held  a 
population  of  a  few  thousands,  largely  French  and  Cath- 
olic, clustered  mainly  upon  the  lower  St.  Lawrence. 
But  now  we  behold  the  Dominion  of  Canada  spanning 
the  continent  and  stretching  far  towards  the  Arctic 
Circle,  covering  3,000,000  square  miles,  containing 
5,500,000  inhabitants  predominantly  Protestant,  and 
divided  for  governmental  purposes  into  seven  provinces, 
three  organized  and  five  unorganized  territories.  Here 
hundreds  of  churches  are  co-operating  through  a  half- 
score  of  missionary  societies  and  225  missionaries,  at  an 
annual  cost  of  nearly  $500,000  (twice  as  much  as  the 
contributions  of  all  Christendom  a  hundred  years  ago), 
to  care  spiritually  for  the  Indians  and  other  unevan- 
403 


404  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

gelized  classes  at  home  and  to  hold  divers  points  in  the 
boundless  field  abroad. 

The  United  States  was  composed  of  but  sixteen  com- 
monwealths, federated  indeed,  but  by  no  means  molded 
into  unity.  Vermont  and  Central  New  York  had  not 
escaped  from  wilderness  conditions,  Ohio  was  but  a  terri- 
tory, the  Mississippi  Valley  had  scarcely  been  touched 
by  settlers,  the  entire  Gulf  coast  was  in  Spanish  hands, 
while  the  western  two-thirds  of  the  continent  was  not 
only  foreign  soil  but  was  wholly  unexplored.  Napoleon 
was  eagerly  bargaining  for  this  imperial  realm  to  make  it 
into  a  French  colony.  The  Columbia  River  was  not 
discovered  until  1792,  and  another  decade  passed  by 
before  Lewis  and  Clark  made  their  memorable  journey 
to  the  sources  of  the  Missouri  and  to  the  Pacific.  By 
the  Louisiana  Purchase  the  area  of  the  Union  was  more 
than  doubled.  But  when  the  century  opened  the  popu- 
lation was  only  a  meager  5,500,000,  less  than  that  of 
New  York  or  Pennsylvania  to-day,  not  much  more  than 
that  of  Illinois  or  Ohio,  not  much  more  even  than  that 
of  our  two  greatest  cities  taken  together.  The  wildest 
dreamer  never  caught  a  glimpse  of  our  half-hundred 
States,  a  Republic  covering  the  Great  American  Desert 
and  the  vast  mountain  region  beyond,  with  a  western 
coast  line  extending  from  the  Gulf  of  California  to 
Bering  Straits ;  a  Nation  for  population,  wealth,  and  re- 
sources of  every  kind,  among  the  foremost  in  the  world. 

All  things  considered,  it  cannot  be  counted  strange 
that  a  hundred  years  ago  missionary  zeal  had  no  exist- 
ence in  this  country.  There  was  next  to  none  anywhere 
in  Protestant  Christendom.  The  material  and  intel- 
lectual conditions  were  almost  wholly  those  of  the  fron- 
tier; the  excitements  of  the  Revolutionary  period  had 


A   HUNDRED   YEARS   AGO,    AND   NOW.  405 

wrought  widespread  demoralization;  while  French  infi- 
delity had  come  in  later  like  a  flood.  Since  the  Great 
Awakening  under  Edwards  and  Whitefield  revivals  had 
been  well-nigh  unknown.  A  succession  of  Indian  wars 
had  changed  solicitude  for  the  pagan  aborigines  into 
indifference,  if  not  into  fear  and  hatred.  At  any  rate, 
the  Eliots  and  Brainerds  had  died  and  left  no  successors. 
Almost  the  only  Indian  missionary  extant  was  the  apos- 
tolic Moravian,  David  Zeisberger,  and  he,  after  years  of 
exile  with  his  converts  for  safety's  sake  in  Canada,  with 
a  disheartened  handful  was  now  returning  to  Ohio.  What 
little  evangelizing  zeal  existed  found  its  field  upon  the 
frontier  in  ministering  to  the  spiritually  destitute  first 
settlers.  As  for  the  great  perishing  world  beyond  the 
seas,  it  was  far  too  remote  to  kindle  concern,  too  inac- 
cessible, too  nearly  unknown.  On  this  side  the  Atlantic  a 
little  had  been  heard  of  Carey's  sublime  venture,  and  in 
a  few  hearts  some  slight  response  had  been  made.  But 
Mills,  the  father  of  American  missions,  was  but  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  Judson  was  but  twelve,  Ann  Hasseltine 
was  a  year  younger,  and  Harriet  Newell  was  only  seven. 
The  missionary  day  was  yet  to  dawn. 

As  for  the  residue  of  the  Western  Hemisphere,  for 
some  three  centuries  it  had  all  been  either  Spanish  or 
Portuguese,  and  the  population  was  still  in  the  forlorn 
estate  in  which  it  was  originally  found,  except  that  a 
thin  varnish  of  Roman  Christianity  had  been  applied. 
No  other  faith  was  tolerated  in  the  least  degree.  A  heretic 
was  even  more  odious  than  a  heathen,  and  the  herald  of 
the  Cross  must  needs  wait  until  religious  liberty  should 
follow  in  the  wake  of  political  independence  and  the 
setting  up  of  republican  forms  of  government.  In  the 
West  Indies  the  woes  and  degradation  of  slavery  were  at 


406  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

their  greatest.  The  blacks  were  in  a  semi-savage  con- 
dition, and  their  masters  naturally  stood  in  fear  of  the 
advent  of  Christlike  men  who  should  endeavor  to  inspire 
them  with  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  Gospel.  For 
two  generations  a  few  Moravian  missionaries  had  been 
doing  what  they  could,  and  in  the  last  decades  of  the 
century  the  English  Wesleyans  undertook  work  in  several 
islands,  though  with  slight  results  as  yet. 

What  was  the  situation  in  Christian  Europe  ?  George 
III.  was  upon  the  throne  with  nearly  twenty  years  of 
life  remaining.  Agitation  against  slavery  had  begun  and 
was  waxing  fierce,  but  the  masses  of  Britain  had  not  yet 
attained  to  the  estate  of  voters,  while  Catholics,  Jews, 
and  Dissenters  in  general  were  accorded  few  rights 
which  Churchmen  were  bound  to  respect.  By  the 
Wesleyan  revival  many  individuals  had  been  tremen- 
dously affected,  but  not  the  people  at  large.  To  multi- 
tudes of  men,  like  Sidney  Smith,  who  were  both  well- 
meaning  and  sensible,  whoever,  like  Carey,  was  relig- 
iously fervid  and  in  dead  earnest,  was  a  synonym  for  all 
that  was  irrational  and  absurd.  The  Baptist  Missionary 
Society  had  reached  the  age  of  eight  years,  and  had  sent 
out  Carey  and  three  others  to  Calcutta  where  the  first 
Hindu  convert  was  soon  to  be  baptized.  The  London  So- 
ciety was  four  years  old.  It  had  dispatched  a  company 
of  artisan  missionaries  to  the  South  Seas  with  sore  trials 
and  long  waiting  in  store,  had  shared  in  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  plant  the  truth  in  West  Africa,  and  in  1796 
had  commissioned  Vanderkemp  for  toil  among  the  Hot- 
tentots. A  small  society  had  been  organized  in  Edin- 
burgh and  another  in  Glasgow.  The  Church  Missionary 
Society  had  been  in  existence  a  twelvemonth,  but  for 
sixteen  mortal  years  not  an  English  clergyman  could 


A  HUNDRED   YEARS   AGO,    AND   NOW.  407 

be  found  willing  to  enter  the  foreign  field,  and  toilers 
must  needs  be  sought  in  Germany.  Henry  Martyn  was 
eighteen  years  of  age.  Within  two  years  he  was  to 
catch  the  missionary  spirit  and,  after  three  years  more, 
to  take  his  departure  for  India  to  be  an  East  India 
Company  chaplain.  The  first  Bible  society  was  yet  four 
years  in  the  future.  And  this  is  the  story  of  British 
missions  as  they  existed  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Upon  the  Continent  the  situation  was  vastly  worse. 
The  excesses  and  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution  were 
fresh  in  mind;  the  protracted  Napoleonic  wars  were 
raging ;  and  the  republic  was  soon  to  become  an  empire, 
with  Marengo,  Austerlitz  and  Trafalgar  not  far  off. 
Germany  was  but  a  score  or  two  of  petty  and  jealous 
states,  part  Protestant  and  part  Catholic,  but  equally  in 
all  the  church  was  dominated  by  the  state,  and  religion 
was  largely  formal.  Missionary  zeal  was  confined  to  the 
Moravians,  a  feeble  folk,  and  to  a  few  godly  Lutheran 
pastors.  In  the  Netherlands  through  the  efforts  of  Van- 
derkemp  a  society  had  recently  been  formed,  but  by  the 
rationalism  then  current  was  presently  as  good  as  throt- 
tled. Of  course  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy,  and  Austria, 
were  abjectly  papal,  with  the  spirit  of  Jesuitism  and  the 
Inquisition  enthroned.  The  Pope  was  possessed  of  tem- 
poral power,  and  was  both  able  and  willing  to  wield 
carnal  weapons  against  his  foes.  In  Russia  the  masses 
were  but  serfs  bound  to  the  soil.  In  the  southeast  up  to 
the  Danube  and  beyond,  Greece  included,  all  was  Turkish 
and  Mohammedan.  For  generations  the  Barbary  pirates 
had  held  practical  control  of  the  Mediterranean,  demand- 
ing rewards  for  good  behavior,  making  frequent  raids, 
reducing  all  Christian  captives  to  intolerable  slavery, 


408  A   HUNDRED    YEARS    OF   MISSIONS. 

and  holding  them  for  high  ransom.  Such  was  the 
Europe  of  a  century  since. 

As  for  Africa,  from  Egypt  to  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar 
the  Man  of  Mecca  was  supreme  in  the  religious  realm 
and  the  Sultan  exercised  temporal  sovereignty,  while  the 
residue  of  the  continent,  excepting  a  few  points  upon 
the  coast,  was  still  a  mere  terra  incognita.  Mungo 
Park,  among  the  very  first  of  modern  explorers,  in  1796 
had  begun  his  attempts  to  penetrate  to  the  upper  Niger. 
Further  south  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  the  slave  trade 
for  centuries  had  been  working  unspeakable  evils,  though 
within  a  few  years  in  Sierra  Leone  had  been  founded  a 
refuge  for  such  of  these  poor  wretches  as  had  been  able 
to  regain  their  freedom.  Slave-stealing  and  deadly  fever 
were  the  chief  facts  for  which  this  region  stood  in  the 
thought  of  the  civilized  world.  Passing  southward,  ex- 
cepting the  slave-stealers  and  some  Portuguese,  no  Euro- 
peans had  entered  to  abide  until  the  Cape  was  reached, 
where  the  Dutch  had  been  in  possession  for  a  century 
and  a  half,  though  with  Britain  soon  to  enter  into  sov- 
ereignty. The  ambition  of  the  Hollanders  had  been  to 
enslave  rather  than  to  evangelize  the  Hottentots  and  all 
their  kind.  Fifty  years  ago  the  Moravians  had  attempted 
to  spread  the  Glad  Tidings  among  the  natives,  but  had 
been  expelled  and  had  only  just  been  able  to  return. 
Vanderkemp  also  was  now  preaching  salvation  to  these 
degraded  souls.  Of  the  courses  of  the  Niger,  the  Kongo, 
the  Zambesi  and  the  upper  Nile,  nothing  was  known, 
the  lofty  mountains  and  great  lakes  of  the  interior  were 
unheard  of — it  was  thirteen  years  before  Livingstone  was 
born.  Therefore  as  a  mission  field  the  Dark  Continent 
was  as  good  as  non-existent  a  hundred  years  ago. 

Crossing  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  masses  of  the  great 


A  HUNDRED    YEARS   AGO,    AND   NOW.  409 

peninsula  of  southern  Asia  were  either  under  the  rule  of 
native  princes,  Mohammedan  or  Hindu,  or  else  were 
subject  to  the  East  India  Company,  a  trading  corpora- 
tion strangely  endowed  with  political  power,  which  was 
making  war  and  annexing  territory  at  its  own  sweet  will. 
The  men  in  charge  of  the  Company  were  money-makers 
by  profession,  and  manifested  but  slight  regard  for  the 
principles  of  Christianity.  Openly  countenancing  and 
abetting  not  a  few  of  the  worst  abominations  connected 
with  the  native  religions,  they  stood  in  mortal  fear  of  all 
who  would  make  proclamation  of  the  Gospel.  Mission- 
aries were  "interlopers"  ipso  facto,  and  therefore  for- 
bidden to  come  into  the  regions  controlled  by  the  Com- 
pany. If  they  still  came  and  were  caught,  they  were 
deported  without  ceremony.  Burma  and  Siam  were  un- 
visited  by  Europeans.  Ceylon  had  long  been  Dutch 
soil,  but  a  few  years  before  had  become  British.  At 
Tranquebar,  upon  the  southeast  coast  of  India,  a  Danish 
mission  had  existed  for  nearly  a  century,  but  was  now 
steadily  losing  ground.  Up  in  Bengal,  Carey  and 
Thomas,  who,  thanks  to  the  Danish  flag,  were  safe 
from  deportation,  had  just  been  joined  by  Marshman 
and  Ward,  and  were  soon  to  rejoice  over  their  first  con- 
vert. So  much  for  "  Hindustan,"  with  its  one-fifth  of 
the  human  family,  at  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth 
century  after  the  Advent. 

The  Dutch  were  in  power  in  the  East  Indies,  but  were 
doing  next  to  nothing  to  make  Christ  known  to  the  be- 
nighted. For  generations  China,  containing  one-fourth 
of  the  earth's  population,  with  Korea  also  and  Japan,  had 
been  absolutely  closed  against  the  entrance  of  all  Euro- 
peans. The  first  missionary  was  to  present  himself  in 
Canton  and  begin  to  lay  siege  to  the  empire  some  seven 


41 0  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

years  hence.  British  cannon  were  required  to  break 
down  these  walls,  while  more  than  fifty  years  were  to  pass 
by  before  the  two  neighbor  countries  should  unbar  the 
gates. 

Such  was  the  status  with  the  five  continents,  and  what 
shall  be  said  of  the  land  spaces  which  stud  the  vast 
Pacific  ?  Well,  there  was  no  Australia  as  yet,  but  only 
New  Holland,  which  Captain  Cook  had  recently  made 
known  to  the  civilized  world.  Thus  far  the  name  only 
suggested  Botany  Bay  and  Van  Diemen's  Land,  two  con- 
vict settlements  into  which  England's  rascals  and  felons 
were  dumped  by  the  tens  of  thousands.  New  Zealand 
and  Fiji  for  a  generation  to  come  were  but  other  names 
for  cannibalism  and  divers  indescribable  horrors.  Only 
to  the  Society  Islands,  a  single  group  from  scores,  had 
the  word  of  life  been  carried.  Such  was  the  world, 
both  Christian  and  pagan,  at  its  best  estate,  only  ten  dec- 
ades since. 

Or,  to  sum  up  this  phase  of  the  situation  in  a  single 
paragraph,  in  1800  three  of  the  six  continents  were  prac- 
tically unknown  to  Christendom;  from  the  whole  of 
eastern  Asia  with  its  hundreds  of  millions,  Occidentals 
were  absolutely  excluded  by  pagan  rulers,  while  from 
India,  second  only  to  China  for  the  number  of  its  inhab- 
itants, all  who  would  make  Christ  known  were  shut  out  by 
the  representatives  of  a  Christian  nation.  And  further, 
so  primitive  and  rude  were  modes  of  travel,  and  conse- 
quently so  slight  was  the  world's  commerce,  that  moun- 
tains and  seas  and  great  spaces  in  general  were  barriers, 
next  to  insuperable,  reared  between  Christendom  and  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  Where  to  go,  where  one  would  be 
suffered  to  tarry  and  toil,  and  how  to  make  the  journey 
thither,  were  questions  exceeding  grave.  Each  people, 


A    HUNDRED    YEARS    AGO,    AND   NOW.  4!  I 

tongue,  race,  religion,  dwelt  apart  from  every  other. 
Ignorance,  indifference,  prejudice,  if  not  also  fear  and 
hatred,  combined  to  make  intercourse  most  difficult.  Who 
can  wonder  then  that  missionary  zeal  was  unknown? 
What  an  astonishing  change  since  Fulton  and  Stephen- 
son  and  Morse  and  Livingstone  and  Stanley  and  their 
kind,  have  done  their  work  !  The  remotest  lands  are 
now  more  easily  reached  than  Rome  was  from  London, 
or  Ohio  from  New  England,  and  except  at  the  poles  the 
earth's  surface  scarcely  contains  any  considerable  region 
yet  unvisited  by  some  curious  and  venturesome  spirit. 

But  such  material  obstacles  as  these  were  by  no  means 
the  only  ones,  or  the  greatest.  The  universal  lack  of 
missionary  experience  was  a  hindrance  most  serious  and 
damaging.  Both  the  science  and  the  art  of  winning  men 
from  false  faiths  to  the  true  one,  from  the  abominations 
and  absurdities  of  heathenism  to  the  pure  and  lofty  prin- 
ciples of  the  Gospel,  had  no  existence.  At  home  the 
conceptions  cherished  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  were 
too  often  narrow  and  superficial.  Protestantism  was  over 
largely  mere  anti-Catholicism,  with  bitter  prejudices  sep- 
arating the  numerous  sects.  Besides,  the  entire  machin- 
ery of  evangelizing  effort  was  all  to  be  contrived,  and 
fashioned,  and  applied.  The  multitudinous  instrumen- 
talities required  for  wielding  most  effectively  forces  purely 
spiritual,  such  as  Bible  societies  for  the  translation  and 
printing  and  diffusion  of  the  Word,  and  tract  societies 
and  other  organizations  to  supply  a  Christian  literature 
and  books  for  the  diffusion  of  intelligence,  were  yet  in 
their  inception.  As  these  developed,  problems  became 
more  complex.  At  home  boards  and  committees  by  the 
score  and  hundred  must  be  created  and  trained  to  stimu- 
late interest  and  secure  funds,  as  well  as  to  select  and 


412  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

prepare  suitable  men  and  women.  Then,  too,  in  the 
foreign  field  such  weighty  problems  as  these  were  to  be 
solved ;  how  to  allay  suspicion  and  dislike,  how  to  arrest 
the  attention,  touch  the  stony  heart  and  the  seared  con- 
science, prepare  the  converts  for  service,  develop  giving 
and  the  spirit  of  evangelism  so  that  at  the  soonest  the 
work  shall  become  self-sustaining,  self-governing,  and 
self-propagating.  Moreover,  the  educational  question 
has  been  and  is  most  perplexing.  Who  can  say  before- 
hand what  kind  and  amount  of  scholarship  shall  be  en- 
couraged, or  placed  within  reach  ?  What  place  shall  be 
given  to  industrial  missions  ? 

Again,  a  hundred  years  ago  woman's  worth  as  an 
evangelizer  was  well  nigh  unknown.  Except  as  a  wife, 
a  mere  home-maker  for  a  masculine  missionary,  that  is, 
her  presence  especially  among  barbarians  and  savages 
was  of  more  than  doubtful  propriety,  while  the  sending 
out  of  unmarried  women  was  next  to  unthinkable.  Of 
course  women's  boards  with  their  methods  of  kindling 
zeal  and  collecting  money,  were  innovations  wholly  in 
the  future.  Nor  had  anything  been  specifically  and  sys- 
tematically done  to  enlist  the  young  in  the  manner  ac- 
complished at  present  through  the  Sunday-school,  the 
Christian  Endeavor,  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement, 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  etc.,  etc.  Evo- 
lution was  certain,  but  the  lapse  of  years  was  also  re- 
quired. 

So  much  for  the  situation  a  century  since ;  let  us  next 
glance  at  the  numerous  and  most  thrilling  changes  which 
have  since  occurred  under  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of 
God.  Who  can  trace  without  wonder,  and  joy,  and 
hope,  in  almost  every  quarter  of  the  globe  the  political 
transformations  which  make  for  the  easier  and  more  rapid 


A  HUNDRED   YEARS   AGO,    AND   NOW.  413 

spread  of  Christianity  ?  In  every  civilized  country  slav- 
ery has  been  abolished  !  How  amazing  the  decline  of 
autocracy  and  despotism !  The  enlargment  of  liberty 
and  intelligence  for  the  masses  1  The  transfer  of  domin- 
ion from  barbarous  to  civilized  lands,  from  heathen  and 
Moslem  rulers  to  Christian  !  Note  the  phenomenal  ex- 
pansion of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  standing  everywhere 
for  Protestantism,  for  civil  and  religious  freedom.  Then 
about  20,000,000  spoke  the  English  language,  but  now 
not  far  from  1 20,000,000.  The  area  of  this  Republic 
has  increased  from  800,000  square  miles  to  3,600,000, 
and  its  inhabitants  from  5,000,000  to  more  than  75,000,- 
ooo.  Great  Britain's  king  is  the  titular  and  nominal  ruler 
over  nearly  one-fourth,  both  of  the  earth's  land  surface 
and  of  its  inhabitants.  Britain  and  America  together 
supply  between  three-fourths  and  nine-tenths  of  all,  both 
of  men  and  money,  employed  in  the  work  of  world-wide 
evangelization.  Spain  has  been  driven  altogether  from 
the  New  World,  while  Spanish- America,  now  wholly  re- 
publican in  form,  is  steadily  becoming  such  in  fact,  relig- 
ious liberty  having  been  secured  in  a  large  majority  of 
the  states,  and  a  good  beginning  made  for  Protestantism. 
A  similar  foundation  has  been  laid  in  well-nigh  every 
Catholic  country  of  Europe,  even  in  Italy  under  the  very 
shadow  of  the  Vatican,  the  occupant  of  which  has  been 
divested  of  all  power  to  hinder !  Moreover,  if  the  Czar 
is  to  be  trusted,  freedom  of  conscience  is  ere  long  to  be 
enjoyed  throughout  the  extent  of  the  vast  Russian  Empire  I 
And  how  has  the  Sultan  been  humiliated  and  stricken ! 
His  dominions  have  been  rudely  snatched  from  his  grasp  on 
every  side,  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  until  his  power  is  but 
a  shadow.  The  coast  of  Arabia  on  every  side  is  more 
British  than  Turkish.  Both  Persia  and  Afghanistan  have 


414  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

been  wondrously  tamed.  India  from  the  Himalayas  to 
Cape  Comorin  accepts  King  Edward's  sway  peaceably  if 
not  lovingly,  while  both  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  are 
compelled  to  tolerate  the  abhorred  presence  and  activity 
of  Christian  missionaries.  Siam  is  much  more  than 
placable  towards  the  Gospel.  The  gates  of  China, 
Korea,  and  Japan  stand  wide  open  to  the  entrance  of  all 
who  would  make  proclamation  of  Jesus  and  his  salvation  ! 
Australia  has  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  mere  receptacle 
for  Britain's  human  refuse,  Van  Diemen's  Land  has  be- 
come Tasmania,  with  six  prosperous  and  happy  federated 
commonwealths  come  into  existence  under  the  Southern 
Cross  !  New  Zealand  also  has  become  Christian  and  en- 
lightened. In  the  Pacific  Islands  are  to  be  found  by  the 
ten  thousand  those  who  love  and  serve  the  Living  God. 
Fiji  is  famous  among  regions  redeemed  by  the  power  of 
the  Spirit,  and  Hawaii  has  actually  become  American  in 
character  and  destiny  !  But  perhaps  it  is  in  Africa  after 
all  that  the  most  astounding  transformations  have  been 
wrought.  First  came  explorations  almost  by  the  score 
from  various  points  on  the  coast,  north,  south,  east,  west, 
extending  to  the  remotest  interior,  with  missionaries, 
traders,  and  settlers,  soon  following  by  the  thousand,  and 
wholesale  partition  among  the  European  powers  to  crown 
it  all,  so  that  little  is  left  in  native  hands,  with  the  lion's 
share  of  the  best  accruing  to  the  British,  including  the 
Nile  Valley  from  end  to  end,  the  lake  region,  and,  since 
the  close  of  the  Boer  war,  the  bulk  of  South  Africa  as 
well.  Not  long  ago  slavery  practically  disappeared. 
Behold,  what  hath  God  wrought  for  the  Dark  Continent 
in  our  day ! 

And  equally  surprising  advances  have  been  witnessed 
in  the  religious  realm  in  Christian  America  and  Europe. 


A  HUNDRED  YEARS   AGO,    AND   NOW.  415 

Then  there  was  an  almost  entire  absence  of  evangelizing 
zeal  among  saints  of  every  name,  the  feeble  Moravian 
Church  being  the  only  one  at  all  approaching  the  Gospel 
standard  in  this  particular.  But  now  no  denomination 
of  any  considerable  size  dares  stand  with  folded  hands 
doing  nothing.  Self-respect,  a  decent  regard  for  reputa- 
tion, if  no  nobler  motive,  compels  to  activity.  Then  the 
missionary  organizations  could  be  counted  upon  the 
fingers  of  one  hand ;  now  they  are  numbered  by  hun- 
dreds. From  a  paltry  £200,000  which  represented  the 
giving  of  Christendom  for  a  lost  world's  redemption,  the 
annual  contributions  have  climbed  up  past  the  $20,000,- 
ooo  mark.  Then  a  few  score  men  had  gone  forth  at  the 
Lord's  bidding,  to-day  nearly  two-score  thousand  men 
and  women,  with  native  assistants  to  the  number  of  some 
80,000,  are  engaged  heart  and  soul  in  furthering  the 
kingdom.  Among  the  toilers  are  more  than  6,000 
clergymen,  more  than  700  physicians,  nearly  8,000 
women,  of  whom  nearly  half  are  unmarried.  More  than 
24,000  schools  are  maintained,  with  at  least  1,000  classed 
as  higher  institutions,  and  more  than  1,000,000  under 
instruction.  Something  like  1,000  hospitals  and  dis- 
pensaries are  maintained.  As  the  second  century  of  mis- 
sions opens,  no  less  than  three  societies  can  be  named 
which  receive  each  more  than  $  1,000,000  a  year,  nine 
more  than  $500,000,  and  thirty-three  more  than  $100,- 
ooo ;  five  sustain  each  more  than  500  missionaries,  and 
thirty  more  than  100 ;  eight  have  more  than  50,000 
communicants  in  their  mission  churches,  and  nineteen 
more  than  10,000.  A  hundred  years  ago  the  Scriptures, 
or  portions  of  them,  were  found  in  less  than  fifty  lan- 
guages, and  mainly  those  of  Christian  peoples ;  they  now 
exist  in  nearly  500  tongues. 


41 6  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

The  progress  of  the  kingdom  will  appear  still  more 
remarkable  if  we  divide  the  last  century  into  two  equal 
parts,  and  note  how  little  that  is  visible  and  tangible  was 
accomplished  during  the  first  fifty  years,  and  how  the 
closing  decades  are  fairly  crowded  with  progress.  Pro- 
jecting ourselves  backward  to  the  year  of  grace  1850, 
what  do  we  see  ?  The  view  is  surprisingly  like  the  one 
just  taken.  Inventive  skill  had  indeed  achieved  some- 
thing notable,  though  by  comparison  with  the  present  not 
much.  The  triumphs  of  engineering  were  but  at  the  be- 
ginning, the  latent  powers  of  electricity  were  unsuspected. 
Chicago  was  not  reached  from  the  East  by  the  locomotive 
until  1853,  the  first  line  of  rails  was  not  laid  across  the 
continent  until  1869,  and  the  Suez  Canal  which  reduced 
the  distance  from  London  to  Calcutta  by  thousands  of 
miles  was  not  begun  until  1860.  In  the  middle  year  of 
the  century  the  California  gold  excitement  was  beginning 
to  wax  fierce.  A  few  settlers  had  entered  Oregon.  But 
it  was  all  wilderness  west  of  the  Missouri,  and  save 
Missouri  and  Iowa,  all  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Slavery 
was  defiant,  with  Clay's  compromise  and  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  to  hasten  the  national  crisis. 
A  sorely  needed  revival  was  at  hand  to  stimulate  mission- 
ary enthusiasm  and  zeal.  A  half-score  of  societies  had 
been  formed,  but  the  incomes  of  all  were  meager.  The 
American  Board,  in  which  four  denominations  were  then 
united,  was  receiving  but  $260,000  a  year.  With  one 
exception  only  slight  results  could  be  tabulated.  In  the 
thirties  the  Sandwich  Islands  had  been  blessed  by  a 
sweeping  revival. 

In  Spanish  America  the  yoke  of  political  bondage  had 
been  thrown  off,  but  bondage  to  the  Papacy  was  as  uni- 
versal and  heavy  as  ever.  From  the  Rio  Grande  to  Cape 


A   HUNDRED   YEARS   AGO,    AND   NOW.  417 

Horn  not  the  slightest  approach  to  freedom  of  conscience 
had  been  made.  To  Great  Britain  substantial  enlarge- 
ment of  liberty  had  come  in  realms  both  political  and 
religious,  but  next  to  none  upon  the  Continent.  In  Cath- 
olic countries  Protestants  had  no  rights ;  emancipation 
of  the  serfs  in  Russia  was  a  decade  distant,  and  recent 
uprisings  against  despotism  in  divers  countries  had  all 
ended  in  crushing  failure.  The  unification  of  Germany 
and  Italy,  the  catastrophe  to  the  second  empire  in 
France,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Pope's  temporal 
power  were  far  in  the  future.  Fifty  years  had  seen  no 
changes  to  speak  of  in  Africa.  Livingstone  was  just  at 
the  beginning  of  his  career  as  explorer,  having  penetrated 
to  Lake  Ngami  in  1849,  though  his  first  great  journey 
was  not  undertaken  until  four  years  later.  Kongo,  Tan- 
ganyika, Victoria  Nyanza,  Kilimanjaro  and  Uganda,  were 
unknown  names.  Wholesale  "partition"  did  not  occur 
until  the  eighties.  Eighteen  missionary  societies  were  at 
work  upon  the  West  Coast  in  the  South,  but  in  the  east, 
and  the  North,  and  the  limitless  interior,  nothing  whatever 
had  been  undertaken.  Madagascar  had  been  entered  in 
1818,  but  in  1836  a  deadly  persecution  had  commenced, 
destined  to  continue  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  with  ex- 
pulsion of  the  missionaries  among  the  incidents.  No 
marked  successes  had  been  achieved  in  India.  The 
same  hostile  Company  was  in  power,  though  compelled  to 
tolerate  Christianity  since  1833.  Not  until  after  the 
horrors  of  the  Mutiny  did  the  British  Government  take 
direct  control,  or  British  Christians  begin  to  bestir  them- 
selves to  do  their  full  duty  to  the  needy  millions  of  these 
their  brothers  in  brown.  In  China  by  the  Opium  War 
five  ports  had  been  opened  for  trade  and  residence. 
Several  societies  had  made  haste  to  enter,  but  thus  far 


41 8  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

only  about  300  converts  had  been  made.  Neither  Korea 
nor  Japan  was  accessible,  nor  was  it  until  1854  that 
Commodore  Perry  knocked  effectively  for  entrance  at 
the  Mikado's  door.  The  character  of  Australia  was  but 
slightly  changed,  though  the  annual  dumping  of  thou- 
sands of  criminals  upon  its  soil  had  ceased,  and  discov- 
eries of  gold  were  at  hand,  to  be  followed  by  the  influx 
of  a  host  of  immigrants  and  the  foundations  of  stable  so- 
ciety and  good  government. 

The  "forward  movement"  in  the  Kingdom  will  ap- 
pear still  more  significant  and  impressive  if  the  contrast 
is  drawn  between  the  situation  at  the  opening  and  the 
end  of  a  still  shorter  period,  to  wit,  the  last  decade.  The 
world's  advance  during  these  recent  years  has  been  un- 
precedented. Note  the  numerous  inventions  and  discov- 
eries, like  Marconi's,  the  Roentgen  ray,  the  germ  origin 
of  various  diseases,  and  the  development  of  the  trolley 
system ;  contemplate  the  construction  of  the  Trans-Si- 
berian, the  Kongo  and  the  Uganda  railways,  and  the 
progress  made  in  connection  with  the  astounding  Cape  to 
Cairo  enterprise.  Regard  the  expansion  of  the  United 
States,  the  assurance  of  the  completion  of  the  Panama 
Canal,  the  annexation  of  Hawaii,  the  laying  of  a  cable 
thither  and  onward  to  the  Philippines,  and  the  Span- 
ish-American war  dealing  a  death  blow  to  Spanish  co- 
lonial power  and  thrusting  this  Republic  out  upon  the 
momentous  venture  of  an  "imperial"  career.  Nor  is 
the  Hague  Conference  to  be  forgotten,  or  the  Czar's 
proclamation  promising  reforms.  The  Boer  war  so  la- 
mentable, and  also  of  such  value  unspeakable  to  Africa, 
must  not  be  overlooked,  nor  the  Boxer  outbreak,  with  its 
crushing  rebuke  to  Chinese  conceit  and  exclusiveness. 
Events  which  used  to  be  extended  over  centuries  now 


A   HUNDRED   YEARS   AGO,    AND  NOW.  419 

come  in  clusters  and  drop  down  upon  us  of  a  sudden. 
In  1890  Dean  Vahl,  in  a  modest  pamphlet  of  twenty-two 
pages,  which  yet  surpassed  every  previous  review, 
scanned  the  missionary  horizon  with  a  telescope  and  was 
able  to  discover  264  societies,  with  a  total  income  of 
£11,148,795,  with  masculine  toilers  to  the  number  of 
4,495  and  2,062  unmarried  women  (missionaries'  wives 
were  deemed  not  worth  counting),  with  3,374  ordained 
natives  and  42,870  other  helpers.  The  communicants 
numbered  885,116.  But  in  1900  Dr.  Dennis,  canvass- 
ing the  same  world -field,  was  able  to  crowd  a  bulky 
quarto  of  upwards  of  400  pages  with  facts  relating  to  558 
societies  instead,  and  figures  such  as  have  been  pre- 
sented upon  a  preceding  page.  To  take  the  case  of  a 
single  organization,  the  English  Church  Missionary  So- 
ciety, the  largest  in  existence,  during  the  same  decade, 
increased  its  evangelizing  force  from  411  to  889,  the 
laymen  employed  from  300  to  412,  and  the  unmarried 
women  from  59  to  331  !  Its  medical  missionaries  were 
but  a  handful,  but  now  number  69  doctors  and  33 
nurses.  In  view  of  facts  like  these,  so  multitudinous  and 
so  varied,  who  can  deny  that  the  outlook  for  the  world's 
evangelization  is  most  inspiring,  and  quickening  to  cour- 
age and  faith  ?  And  what  do  our  eyes  behold  but  the 
veritable  beginning  of  the  end,  the  dawn  of  the  Great 
Consummation  ? 


CHAPTER  XXn. 

THE  LAND  WHICH  REMAINS  TO  BE  POSSESSED. 

TAKEN  altogether,  the  pages  which  precede  set  forth 
the  stage  of  advancement  now  reached  by  the  work  un- 
dertaken for  the  world's  evangelization,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  first  hundred  years  from  the  date  of  the  glorious 
re-beginning  of  Christian  missions,  under  the  lead  of 
William  Carey.  And  indeed  the  fact  has  been  abund- 
antly demonstrated,  that  a  marvelous  development  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  has  taken  place.  The  ingather- 
ing of  souls  in  pagan  lands  has  been  great.  Millions 
have  turned  from  the  worship  of  idols  to  the  service  of 
the  living  God,  probably  as  large  a  number  as  were 
reached  by  the  Gospel  during  the  first  three  centuries 
after  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer  of  men.  And  the  ter- 
ritorial expansion,  the  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  vis- 
ited for  the  first  time  with  the  message  of  salvation,  wit- 
nessed since  1793,  vastly  exceeds  all  that  occurred  from 
that  date  back  to  Pentecost.  Besides,  far  more  barriers 
have  been  removed,  more  doors  of  entrance  have  been 
opened.  Every  continent  and  island  around  the  whole 
globe  has  been  discovered,  and  visited,  and  explored, 
and  made  accessible ;  and  by  the  railroad,  the  steam- 
ship, the  telegraph,  and  excellent  postal  facilities  has 
been  brought  near.  In  addition,  the  ruling  powers  of 
to-day,  those  possessed  of  fleets,  and  armies,  and  com- 
mercial enterprise,  are  almost  wholly  Christian,  and  by 
them  in  many  ways  the  intolerant  heathen  and  Moham- 
420 


THE   LAND   WHICH    REMAINS  TO   BE   POSSESSED.     421 

medan  governments  are  restrained  from  evil,  and  im- 
pelled to  rational  and  righteous  doing.  More  than  a 
third  of  the  followers  of  the  prophet  of  Arabia  are  sub- 
ject to  Great  Britain  alone.  In  well-nigh  every  region 
the  lives  and  property  of  missionaries  are  secure.  So- 
cieties by  the  hundred  have  sent  forth  by  the  thousand 
consecrated  men  and  women,  while  by  the  million  the 
money  to  sustain  them  is  regularly  bestowed.  And  finally 
evangelizing  methods  have  been  perfected  under  the  tui- 
tion of  large  experience,  potent  instrumentalities  have 
been  fashioned  in  great  variety,  and  all  needed  appli- 
ances have  been  set  to  work.  Christendom,  if  not  yet 
fully  awake  to  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  the 
task,  is  at  least  steadily  arousing  to  solicitude  and  zeal. 
The  passing  century  of  wonders  has  beheld  no  phenome- 
non more  astounding  than  that  connected  with  the  dif- 
fusion of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  since  the  notable  day 
when  the  poverty-stricken  cobbler-preacher-school-mas- 
ter, with  consuming  fervor  exhorted  his  fellow-Baptists 
to  "  Expect  great  things  from  God,"  and,  to  "  Attempt 
great  things  for  God."  How  changed  in  every  particu- 
lar, how  enlarged  and  strengthened  beyond  conception, 
are  Christian  missions,  both  as  to  their  condition  and 
the  outlook  for  the  future.  When  Carey  set  forth  for 
India,  the  heart  of  Christendom  was  dead  as  touching 
conviction  and  desire.  And  only  this  was  Protestantism 
doing  for  the  redemption  of  a  perishing  world ;  in  and 
about  Tranquebar  was  a  decaying  Danish  mission,  and 
the  Moravians  were  maintaining  a  few  stations  among 
the  most  benighted  of  the  human  family. 

So  regarded,  viewed  with  only  such  facts  in  mind,  the 
last  century  constitutes  an  illustrious  period  in  Chris- 
tian history.  But  this  is  by  no  means  a  complete  state- 


422  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

ment  of  the  essential  facts  in  the  case.  There  is  another 
aspect  of  a  different  sort,  one  far  less  flattering,  and  far 
more  serious.  It  is  that  which  relates  to  what  has  not 
been  accomplished,  the  things  that  remain  to  be  done. 
The  case  for  this  generation  is  much  like  the  one  to 
which  Joshua  called  the  attention  of  the  chosen  people 
when  near  the  close  of  his  life.  By  the  divine  hand  they 
had  been  brought  safely  through  the  desert  of  wander- 
ing, the  Jordan  had  been  opened  that  they  might  pass 
over  dry-shod,  great  victories  had  been  won  at  Jericho, 
and  Ai,  and  Beth-horon,  and  when  loyal  and  obedient 
to  Jehovah,  no  force  however  great  had  been  able  to 
stand  before  them.  But  after  all,  the  Canaanites  were 
not  expelled.  Many  choice  tracts  were  still  in  alien 
hands.  And  the  situation  was  summed  up  in  these 
solemn  words,  with  specifications  following :  And  there 
remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed.  And 
this  is  the  supreme  fact  for  the  consideration  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  Christ  at  the  present  time,  and  for  long  years 
to  come.  With  profoundest  and  abiding  gratitude  for 
past  achievements,  thanking  God  and  taking  courage, 
we  are  to  address  ourselves  with  might  and  main  to  the 
completion  of  the  tremendous  task  yet  on  hand.  At  no 
point,  and  in  no  particular,  is  the  undertaking  finished. 
At  the  best,  only  a  fair  beginning  has  been  made.  The 
momentous  campaign  has  simply  opened.  A  world-wide 
reconnoissance  has  been  made  to  gain  a  needful  knowl- 
edge of  the  field,  a  few  scattering  skirmishes  have  been 
fought  to  feel  the  strength  of  the  enemy,  and  to  find 
where  he  is  drawn  up  in  force,  and  some  comparatively 
trifling  successes  have  been  won.  The  main  battle, 
which  shall  mark  the  turning  point,  the  beginning  of  the 
end,  belongs  in  the  unseen  future.  With  this  thought  in 


THE   LAND   WHICH    REMAINS  TO   BE   POSSESSED.     423 

mind,  or  with  this  conception  of  missions,  let  us  give  a 
closing  glance  at  the  entire  field. 

With  India  a  beginning  can  most  fittingly  be  made, 
India  the  chiefest  bulwark  of  the  kingdom  of  Satan. 
Amazing  revolutions   have   been   wrought  since  Carey 
landed,  an  "  interloper,"  in  Calcutta.     In  every  realm 
is  felt  the  beneficent  influence  of  British  dominion.    Law 
and  order  exist  everywhere,  and  for  all.     Railways,  high- 
ways,  and  other  public  works   have  been  constructed, 
sanitary  measures,  and  popular  education,  are  carefully 
provided  for.     Religious  worship  and  teaching  are  free, 
the  missionary  can  go,  and  abide,  and  ply  his  calling 
where  he  will,  while  all  fanaticism  is  kept  within  the 
proper  bounds.     No  other  field  has  been  occupied  by  so 
many  societies,  with  so  large  a  force,  and  in  no  other 
country  have  so  many  converts  been  made.     The  mass 
movements  are  significant,  and  prophetic  of  sweeping  in- 
gatherings  in   days   to   come.      Every   now   and   then 
entire  villages,  and  groups  of  villages,  are  found  ready 
to  destroy  their  idols,  to  receive  teachers,  and  asking  for 
baptism.     But  over  against  all  this ;  ah,  the  myriads  to 
DC  evangelized  !     One-fifth  of  the  earth's  inhabitants  are 
crowded   into  the  triangular  space  lying  between  the 
Himalayas  and  Cape  Comorin.     Of  these  208,000,000 
are  Hindus,  more  than  57,000,000  are  Mohammedans, 
and  about  50,000,000  are  degraded  devil-worshippers. 
And  the  entire  number  of  "  Christians  "  (non-heathen, 
non-idolatrous),  Roman  Catholics,  etc.,  included,  is  but 
2,275,000.     Only  about   356,000   found   in   Protestant 
churches.     Only  some  980,000  are  reckoned  as  connected 
with  Protestant  missions.     More  that  250,000,000  are 
unable  to  either  read  or  write.     Everywhere  are  appalling 
ignorance  and  superstition.     Upon  all  rests  the  curse  of 


424  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

caste,  that  most  cunning  and  effective  of  all  devices  for 
ensnaring  souls,  for  making  damaging  divisions  between 
man  and  man,  ministering  to  pride  and  self-righteous- 
ness, as  well  as  to  indifference  and  contempt  for  one's 
fellow  men.  Partly  on  account  of  climatic  conditions, 
there  is  an  almost  universal  lack  of  ambition,  and  of  love 
of  independence,  lack  of  nerve,  and  energy,  and  push,  and 
a  disposition  to  be  content  with  things  as  they  exist,  no 
matter  how  full  of  evil.  With  this,  and  the  religious  and 
social  systems  long  fixed  and  hoary  with  age,  who  can 
measure,  or  imagine,  the  mass  of  vis  inertia  concentrated 
in  this  vast  peninsula.  It  is  evident  that  redemption  has 
not  yet  come  to  India,  and  that  there  remaineth  yet  very 
much  land  to  be  possessed. 

Colossal  China  takes  rank  among  the  foremost  of  polit- 
ical, social,  and  religious  organizations,  hostile  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  able  long  to  resist  any  onset  likely  to  be 
made.  Something  like  a  quarter  of  the  human  family 
dwell  within  the  boundaries  of  this  oldest  of  nations. 
Deepest  poverty,  and  ignorance  most  dense,  are  the  com- 
mon lot.  The  civilization  is  highly  developed,  and  its 
existence  is  measured  by  millenniums.  This  people  make 
boast  of  one  of  the  wisest  of  ancient  sages,  and  can  im- 
agine nothing  loftier  than  his  moral  teachings.  Three 
religions  have  long  coexisted,  and  are  strangely  blended 
in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  multitudes.  The  national  con- 
ceit of  wisdom,  and  of  all  manner  of  superlative  excel- 
lencies, is  preposterous  almost  to  the  sublime,  with  preju- 
dice and  contempt  for  all  foreigners  to  match.  The 
Chinese  mind  is  exceedingly  cautious,  conservative,  slow- 
moving,  and  averse  to  change.  In  place  of  caste,  as  the 
supreme  hindrance  to  the  Gospel,  ancestral  worship  is 
found,  and  coupled  with  it  full  faith  in  the  ever-present 


THE  LAND   WHICH   REMAINS   TO   BE   POSSESSED.     425 

and  potent  operations  of  geomancy  (fung-shui).  For 
two  hundred  years  all  foreigners  were  rigidly  excluded. 
Until  1840  no  footing  was  gained  for  the  Gospel  upon 
Celestial  soil.  Not  until  1860  was  it  possible  to  pene- 
trate to  the  interior,  and  not  yet  by  any  means  has 
gravest  peril  to  life  from  infuriated  mobs  passed  away. 
After  about  a  generation  of  comparative  freedom  for 
evangelizing  effort,  something  substantial  and  enouraging 
in  the  shape  of  results  can  be  named.  A  few  limited 
sections  have  been  fairly  well  supplied  with  opportunities 
for  hearing  the  word  of  life.  At  least  to  some  slight  ex- 
tent, most  of  the  Eighteen  Provinces,  as  well  as  Mon- 
golia and  Manchuria,  have  been  visited  by  the  heralds 
of  salvation,  though  Tibet  with  its  700,000  square 
miles  and  7,000,000  inhabitants,  still  keeps  its  gates 
shut  and  barred.  But,  beset  as  it  is  upon  both  the  south 
and  east,  by  several  earnest  and  determined  companies, 
who  are  praying  and  watching  and  waiting  for  admis- 
sion, and  meantime  studying  the  language,  and  trans- 
lating the  Scriptures,  so  preparing  weapons  for  the  holy 
campaign,  it  is  scarcely  possible  that  more  than  a  few 
years  will  pass  before  at  least  the  outworks  of  this,  al- 
most the  last  of  the  strongholds  of  heathenism,  will  yield 
to  the  assault.  In  China  proper  just  enough  has  been 
achieved  to  prove  that  great  results  are  within  reach,  and 
are  not  far  off,  if  only  Christian  efforts  are  put  forth  at 
all  commensurate  with  the  magnitude  of  the  task. 
Mainly  within  thirty  years,  about  93,000  have  been  re- 
ceived into  church  membership,  and  many  of  these  have 
shown  themselves  to  be  disciples  of  the  steadfast  and 
stalwart  sort.  Yes,  but  what  are  93,000  among  350,- 
000,000?  A  drop  in  the  bucket,  a  fragment  in- 


426  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

finitesimal.  Of  China  also  it  must  be  written :  There 
remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed. 

Until  within  a  decade  Korea  continued  to  be  a  her- 
mit nation,  determined  to  hold  no  manner  of  communi- 
cation with  the  great  world,  to  think  only  her  own 
thoughts,  to  live  altogether  for  herself.  Persuaded  since 
to  forsake  this  absurd  and  suicidal  policy  to  some  extent, 
on  the  political  and  commercial  side,  so  that  foreigners 
are  tolerated  in  the  treaty  ports,  the  work  of  missionaries 
is  still  contrary  to  law,  is  limited  and  hindered  at  almost 
every  point,  and  on  the  nation  as  a  whole  scarcely  any 
impression  has  been  made.  The  people  appear  to  be 
well-disposed,  and  medical  missions  are  full  of  bright 
promise.  But,  Korea  has  been  entered,  and  that  is 
all.  Only  a  few  initiatory  steps  have  been  taken  to- 
wards imparting  to  her  10,000,000,  or  12,000,000  the 
way  of  life  through  a  crucified  Saviour. 

As  for  Japan,  it  is  the  marvel  of  missionary  history. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  annals  of  the  race  have  changes 
political,  social,  intellectual,  and  religious  ever  occurred 
so  numerous  and  sweeping,  upon  a  scale  so  vast,  in  so 
brief  a  space  of  time.  And  all  these  have  wrought  to- 
gether to  break  down  barriers,  to  throw  up  a  highway 
for  the  entrance  of  the  Gospel.  Much  of  what  is  best 
and  most  characteristic  of  Christian  America  and 
Europe,  has  been  transplanted  to  Japanese  soil. 
Changes,  which  commonly  have  cost  the  toil  and  suf- 
fering of  centuries,  have  been  effected  within  a  single 
generation.  Already  since  1873,  within  thirty  brief 
years,  40,000  have  been  gathered  into  the  Protestant 
churches,  mainly,  too,  from  the  brainy,  forceful,  middle 
classes,  and  enough  more  into  the  Catholic  and  the 
Greek  churches  to  raise  the  number  beyond  100,000. 


THE  LAND   WHICH    REMAINS   TO   BE   POSSESSED.     427 

And  they  differ  from  almost  all  other  converts  made  in 
mission  fields  in  being  eager  for  independence,  deter- 
mined to  think,  conclude,  and  act  for  themselves, 
ready  to  sustain  the  institutions  of  the  Gospel  where 
these  are  already  planted,  and  also  ready  to  carry  the 
Gospel  into  the  "  regions  beyond."  Just  now,  however, 
a  serious  reaction  is  in  progress.  Much  of  the  old  spirit 
is  returning,  including  jealousy  of  foreigners,  and  dislike 
of  western  ideas,  and  ways.  There  is  danger  that  liberty 
will  lapse  into  license.  The  government  is  still  a 
despotism.  The  old  pagan  faiths  are  by  no  means  dead, 
and  their  priests  are  rallying  in  their  defence.  But  the 
prime  fact  is  this :  What  are  40,000  by  the  side  of  40,- 
000,000  of  the  unevangelized  ?  We  may  call  one  in  a 
thousand  Christian  indeed.  Perhaps  five  in  a  thousand 
have  barely  heard  of  what  occurred  in  Bethlehem  and 
on  Calvary.  And  hence  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom,  too, 
there  remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed. 

In  our  rapid  review,  crossing  this  hugest  of  continents, 
we  glance  next  at  the  realms  of  Islam.  According  to 
the  best  estimates  the  prophet  of  Arabia  has  not  less 
than  200,000,000  followers.  Of  these  upwards  of  50,- 
000,000  are  found  in  India,  as  many  more  in  northern 
and  central  Africa,  30,000,000  in  China,  15,000,000  in 
the  Malay  Peninsula  and  the  Malay  Archipelago,  28,- 
000,000  in  the  Turkish  Empire  Arabia  included,  and 
9,000,000  in  Persia.  This  one-seventh  of  the  earth's 
population  represents  one  of  the  most  arduous  and  dis- 
heartening tasks  connected  with  the  universal  diffusion 
of  the  Gospel.  And  towards  its  accomplishment  hitherto 
no  progress  whatever  has  been  made.  At  least  with 
these  two  exceptions.  A  few  scores,  or  hundreds,  of 
converts  have  been  gained  from  this  obdurate  class  in 


428  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

northern  India,  and  a  few  thousands  in  the  Dutch 
East  Indies,  while  the  Bible  has  been  translated  and 
quite  widely  circulated  in  Arabic,  the  sacred  language 
of  the  entire  Moslem  world,  and  because  in  it  the  Koran 
was  written.  In  European  Turkey,  and  Asia  Minor,  and 
eastward  to  the  Euphrates,  for  sixty  years  a  noble  com- 
pany of  consecrated  men  and  women  have  been  toiling 
along  evangelistic,  educational,  and  literary  lines,  and 
have  wrought  a  most  surprising  revolution.  In  Syria,  to 
the  north  and  south  of  Beirut,  and  upon  the  flanks  of 
Lebanon,  a  similar  work  has  been  done,  and  with  re- 
sults equally  excellent.  In  Palestine  a  number  of  so- 
cieties of  various  sorts  have  long  been  occupied.  Con- 
siderable progress  has  been  made  in  the  northwestern 
portion  of  Persia,  while  in  the  central  portions  the 
foundations  have  been  laid.  On  the  outskirts  of 
Arabia,  to  the  east,  and  the  south,  and  the  west, 
Christendom  is  actually  represented  by  seven  Europeans 
and  Americans,  and  four  natives.  Only  so  many  to  care 
for  1,000,000  square  miles,  and  10,000,000  souls.  But 
though  at  work  in  Mohammedan  realms,  alas  none  of 
these,  or  next  to  none,  are  devoting  themselves  to  the 
redemption  of  Mohammedans.  The  nearly  4o,ooo,oo<-_ 
are  passed  by.  The  calls  of  mercy  are  not  addressed  to 
their  ears.  Everywhere  is  found  Moslem  hate  and  con- 
tempt for  all  other  religions,  with  perfect  satisfaction 
concerning  their  own  spiritual  case.  In  Arabia  the 
people  are  said  to  be  fairly  approachable,  and  the  Shah 
of  Persia  is  counted  a  liberal-minded  ruler,  allowing 
some  measures  of  freedom,  even  in  religion.  The  death 
penalty  for  apostasy  is  abolished  in  Turkey,  but  not- 
withstanding, whoso  forsakes  Mohammed  for  Christ 
takes  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  is  far  more  likely  to  die 


THE   LAND   WHICH   REMAINS   TO   BE   POSSESSED.      429 

than  to  live.  In  Afghanistan  Christian  missions  are  not 
allowed.  So  that  practically,  there  are  no  missions  to 
Mohammedans,  and  from  Tibet  in  Central  Asia,  to 
the  Mediterranean  and  the  Balkans,  the  beginnings  of 
the  Gospel  among  the  dominant  races  are  still  to  be 
made.  What  believing  and  ardent  soul  does  not  cry, 
O  Lord,  how  long  ?  And  who  can  deny  that,  as  touch- 
ing this  more  than  one-eight  of  the  family  of  man,  there 
remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed. 

Continuing  our  survey,  and  entering  Africa,  we  light 
upon  a  dark  continent  indeed.  There  is  no  occasion  to 
forget  the  marvels  of  exploration  and  occupation,  which 
have  come  to  pass  since  Livingstone  died  in  1873. 
These  are  sufficiently  suggested  by  the  notable  achieve- 
ments of  Stanley,  the  creation  of  the  Kongo  Free  State, 
the  opening  of  missions  by  the  score  in  the  Kongo 
Basin,  and  about  the  great  African  lakes,  and  the  set- 
ting up  of  "protectorates,"  and  "  spheres  of  influence  " 
by  the  leading  governments  of  Europe.  And  even  the 
terrible  slave  trade  is  about  to  die  the  death.  But 
nevertheless,  what  has  Christendom  done  towards  ban- 
ishing the  grossest  heathenism  and  savagery  from  those 
5,000  miles  by  5,000,  or  those  more  than  160,000,000 
souls  ?  The  first  missionaries  in  modern  times  to  enter 
this  boundless  realm  of  degradation  and  sin  landed  at 
the  Cape  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
and  the  London  Society  sent  Vanderkemp  thither  in 
1799.  And  to-day  the  American  United  Presbyterians 
hold  a  line  of  flourishing  stations  in  the  Nile  Valley,  ex- 
tending from  Alexandria  far  south  to  the  Cataracts,  but 
almost  wholly  for  the  benefit  of  the  Copts  (Christian  in 
name  already).  The  North  Africa  Society  sustains  a 
body  of  men  and  women  in  the  four  other  states  border- 


43°  A   HUNDRED   YEARS   OF   MISSIONS. 

ing  upon  the  Mediterranean.  Dotting  the  West  Coast, 
from  Sierra  Leone  to  the  mouth  of  the  Niger,  and  on 
the  banks  of  that  river,  several  scores  of  heroic  toilers 
are  wearing  out  their  lives  for  the  love  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  and  of  perishing  souls.  Within  only  fifteen  years 
another  long  line  of  stations  has  been  established  on  the 
lower  and  upper  waters  of  the  Kongo.  Yet  further  down 
the  coast  the  American  Board  has  occupied  three  cen- 
ters back  from  Benguela,  and  on  the  table-lands,  while 
back  of  these  Mr.  Arnot  holds  other  strategic  points 
along  the  road  to  Garenganze.  South  Africa  is  a  field 
fairly  well  tilled.  So  extensive  and  mature  is  the  work 
of  the  Gospel,  and  so  large  is  the  immigration  of  Euro- 
peans, that  the  region  may  not  improperly  be  termed 
evangelized,  if  not  also  Christianized.  The  Wesleyans 
alone  have  upwards  of  35,000  converted  natives  organ- 
ized into  a  conference.  Upon  the  east  coast,  lying  be- 
tween Zululand  and  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi,  other 
companies  of  preachers  and  teachers  are  witnessing  for 
the  Master,  and  ministering  to  the  needy  in  His  name. 
The  Paris  Society  through  its  representatives  has  pene- 
trated to  the  Barotse,  inhabiting  the  region  of  the  upper 
Zambesi.  In  like  manner  groups  of  missionaries  are  to 
be  found  building  for  the  kingdom  to  the  north  and 
south  of  Zanzibar,  and  about  the  shores  of  Nyassa, 
Tanganyika,  and  Victoria  Nyanza.  Uganda  is  already 
famous  among  missions.  But  everywhere  in  East  Central 
Africa  the  work  is  still  in  the  period  of  feeble  infancy. 
Advancing  towards  our  starting  point,  and  passing 
through  Abyssinia,  and  along  the  Red  Sea,  not  a  herald 
of  glad  tidings  can  we  discover.  The  great  Sudan  re- 
mains, so  vast  and  so  densely  peopled,  stretching  nearly 
across  the  continent,  and  containing  about  one-third  of 


THE   LAND   WHICH    REMAINS   TO   BE   POSSESSED.      431 

its  population,  largely  Mohammedanized  but  without  an 
evangelist  or  a  follower  of  Jesus.  Two  or  three  Sudan 
missions  have  recently  been  organized,  two  or  three  com- 
panies are  pushing  in  that  direction,  from  the  West 
Coast  and  northward  from  the  upper  Kongo,  and  that  is 
all.  As  for  Africa  as  a  whole  this  is  the  situation.  The 
northern  and  central  portions,  including  much  more  than 
half  of  the  area,  and  approaching  to  half  of  the  inhabitants 
Moslem,  and  the  remainder  in  a  pagan  estate  most  woful, 
and  horrible  in  the  extreme.  Scarcely  one  in  a  thousand 
has  tasted  of  saving  grace,  scarcely  one  in  a  hundred 
has  ever  heard  the  saving  Name  pronounced.  Then 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  between  Cape  Blanco  and 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  very  much  land  remaineth  to 
be  possessed. 

Nor  shall  we  find  the  Islands  of  the  Sea  in  a  much 
better  case.  In  this  portion  of  the  world-field  some  of 
the  most  remarkable  of  the  conquests  of  the  cross  have 
been  made.  Entire  peoples  have  been  lifted  up  from 
the  lowest  depths  of  barbarism  and  beastliness  to 
decency  and  an  orderly  life,  to  a  fair  degree  of  intelli- 
gence, to  character  and  life  truly  Christian,  so  that  by 
the  ten  thousand  they  have  honored  their  profession  of 
godliness.  Let  these  names  stand  for  the  incredible 
story.  The  Society  and  Hawaiian  Islands.  Fiji  in- 
habited by  devils  incarnate,  creatures  given  to  canni- 
balism, and  all  nameless  vices.  New  Zealand  as  bad, 
and  the  New  Hebrides  as  terrible  as  any.  But  now  so 
marvellously  transformed  as  to  send  of  their  own  num- 
ber to  tell  to  other  brutal  islanders  of  the  divine  love 
which  brought  salvation  to  their  own  souls.  Glory  to 
God  for  what  the  Gospel  has  wrought.  But  yet,  the 
bulk  of  these  are  only  children  in  spiritual  estate,  and 


43Z  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

perhaps  for  generations  to  come  must  needs  be  nur- 
tured and  instructed.  Ceylon  is  well  advanced  on  the 
road  to  evangelization.  The  Dutch  East  Indies  have  re- 
ceived the  truth  from  various  Netherlands'  and  German 
societies,  to  such  a  degree  that  a  large  district  of  Celebes 
is  no  longer  heathen  or  Moslem;  in  various  other 
regions  are  found  missions  which  enjoy  such  measures 
of  prosperity  that  the  converts  are  counted  by  tens  and 
scores  of  thousands.  The  head-taking  Dyaks  of  Borneo 
have  learned  to  esteem  human  life  sacred.  But  for  all 
this,  it  is  true  that  in  the  entire  Archipelago  (Malaysia) 
there  are  only  300,000  nominal  Christians,  and  in  Java 
which  holds  24,000,000  of  the  31,000,000,  not  much  of 
anything  has  been  accomplished.  Madagascar  ranks 
next  to  Japan,  perhaps,  among  missions  for  the  wonder- 
ful workings  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Scarcely  another 
organization  has  been  able  to  record  successes  to  match 
those  vouchsafed  to  the  London  Society  among  the  Mal- 
agasy. Upon  no  other  body  of  new  converts  ever  be- 
fell so  relentless  and  protracted  a  persecution  as  tried 
the  souls  of  these.  And  when  the  dreadful  stress  was 
over,  seldom  if  ever  was  seen  such  a  wholesale  turning 
to  the  Lord.  In  the  churches  of  the  three  missions 
70,000  members  are  found,  while  the  adherents  number 
350,000  with  35,000  Catholics  in  addition.  For  the 
other  side,  we  are  bound  to  take  note  that  the  Chris- 
tians are  confined  almost  wholly  to  a  single  tribe,  the 
Hovas,  and  that  of  the  entire  population  nearly  five- 
sixths  remain  in  their  original  darkness.  Therefore,  not 
only  in  Asia,  and  Africa,  but  in  the  Islands  of  the  Sea 
as  well,  there  remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  pos- 
sessed. 

Turning  next  to  countries  nominally  Christian,  but 


THE  LAND   WHICH   REMAINS   TO  BE   POSSESSED.     433 

under  the  rule  of  the  Papacy,  what  do  we  find  ?  And 
first  in  the  Spanish  American  states,  which  extend  from 
southern  California  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  The 
population  approximates  to  50,000,000,  and  is  composed 
of  Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  Indians,  and  the  blood  of 
these  joined  in  every  degree  of  mixture.  Many  of  the 
aborigines  are  still  in  rank  paganism,  and  over  all  the 
residue  the  Roman  Church  has  borne  absolute  sway  for 
centuries.  The  common  grade  of  morals  and  religion 
is  low  indeed,  even  for  Catholic  countries.  In  most  of 
the  states  religious  freedom  is  accorded  by  law,  with 
Catholicism  established  as  the  ruling  faith.  In  two  or 
three  of  the  republics  Protestants  are  forbidden  to  teach 
or  worship  publicly,  while  in  Equador,  with  intolerance 
worse  than  that  of  China,  Korea,  or  Turkey,  and  equalled 
only  by  Tibet,  to  be  a  Protestant  and  to  make  it 
known,  is  to  be  a  malefactor  worthy  of  fines  and  im- 
prisonment, or  of  expulsion.  From  Mexico  to  Pata- 
gonia, some  60,000  Protestant  church  members  are 
found,  with  twice  or  thrice  as  many  adherents,  or  in 
proportion  to  the  population,  one  in  500  of  the  latter, 
and  one  in  1,500  of  the  former.  In  Spanish  America, 
too,  there  remaineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed. 
A  closing  word  concerning  Papal  Europe,  including 
France,  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy,  Austria,  Belgium,  a  large 
part  of  Germany,  etc.  No  apology  is  required  for  zeal- 
ous attempts  to  evangelize  and  educate  the  masses  so 
ignorant  and  priest-ridden.  For  these  150,000,000  not 
much  has  been  even  undertaken,  though  Italy  since  1870 
has  received  considerable  attention.  The  churches  are 
not  toiling,  but  only  playing  at  missions  in  behalf  of 
Catholics.  Or,  grouping  with  the  Papacy  the  Greek 
Church,  which  at  so  many  points  bears  to  it  so  great  a 


434  A  HUNDRED   YEARS   OF  MISSIONS. 

resemblance,  is  in  despotic  control  from  St.  Peters- 
burg and  the  Adriatic,  across  two  continents,  to  Bering 
Sea,  and  is  shaping  the  destinies  of  some  120,000,000, 
the  situation  is  even  worse.  For  the  Czar  far  outdoes 
the  Sultan  in  determination  to  allow  no  dissent  from  the 
orthodox  faith.  The  bulk  of  Europe,  and  the  whole  of 
northern  Asia,  are  yet  to  be  leavened  by  a  pure  Gospel. 
Again  the  divine  word  to  Joshua  applies :  There  re- 
maineth  yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed. 

To  state  in  a  single  paragraph  the  conclusion  of  the 
whole  momentous  matter  :  One  hundred  years  after 
Carey  made  his  sublime  venture,  Christendom  is  repre- 
sented in  Heathendom  by  about  16,450  Europeans  and 
Americans  of  both  sexes.  Of  these  about  6,000  are  or- 
dained, something  less  than  3,000  are  unordained,  4,000 
are  wives,  and  3,600  are  unmarried  women.  With  them 
are  associated  4,300  ordained  and  72,000  unordained 
natives  toiling  as  pastors,  evangelists,  teachers,  etc.  The 
entire  missionary  force  numbers  not  far  from  85,000. 
These  messengers  of  the  churches  are  sustained  at  an 
annual  cost  of  more  than  $18,000,000.  As  a  part  of 
the  ingathering,  the  mission  churches  contain  not  far 
from  1,500,000  members,  and  the  mission  schools  as 
many  pupils,  while  the  adherents  may  reasonably  be 
reckoned  at  a  figure  three  or  even  four  times  as  large. 
So  many  have  turned  their  backs  on  idolatry,  and  have 
turned  their  faces  towards  the  kingdom  of  God  and  its 
righteousness.  And  all  things  considered,  a  most  won- 
derful achievement  to  be  made  in  a  single  century.  To 
God  be  all  the  glory,  and  to  his  faithful  children  a  ten- 
fold increase  of  courage,  ardor,  and  holy  zeal,  of  prayer, 
giving  and  consecrated  toil.  For  over  against  those 
totals  standing  for  what  has  been  accomplished,  must  be 


THE   LAND   WHICH   REMAINS  TO   BE   POSSESSED.      435 

set  these  overwhelming  figures  :  800,000,000  heathen, 
200,000,000  Mohammedans,  and  225,000,000  adherents 
of  the  Greek  Church  and  the  Church  of  Rome.  To 
make  the  statement  complete  it  would  be  necessary  to 
add  the  many  in  Protestant  churches  who  have  but  a 
name  to  live  in  Christ,  and  the  multitude  outside  of  the 
indifferent,  the  skeptical,  the  godless  and  the  abandoned. 
All  that  innumerable  company  of  the  unevangelized 
are  included  in  the  Great  Commission,  in  the  last  com- 
mand of  the  risen  Lord.  Nothing  less  than  putting 
forth  the  utmost  of  effort  to  compass  this  stupendous 
achievement  will  fill  the  measure  of  obligation,  of  priv- 
ilege. A  task  so  solemn,  so  sublime  in  the  wise  and  lov- 
ing providence  of  God  is  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of 
Protestant  Christendom.  This  is  its  mission,  its  heavenly 
calling.  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?  It  is  the 
little  David  going  out  against  the  giant ;  a  handful  mak- 
ing assault  upon  a  host.  The  force  is  ridiculously  im- 
potent if  standing  alone,  but  is  abundantly  able,  wholly 
adequate  with  the  Great  Captain  to  devise  and  lead,  to 
inspire  and  supplement.  What  more  is  needed  to  beget 
the  full  assurance  of  faith  :  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  ; 
Lo  I  am  with  you  all  the  days ;  Every  knee  shall  bow, 
and  every  tongue  shall  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord ; 
The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  kingdoms 
01  our  Lord,  and  He  shall  reign  forever  and  forever 


THE   END. 


INDEX. 


ABYSSINIA,  Conversion  of,  19;  Krapf  a  missionary  to,  227,  233. 

AFRICA,  Missions  in,  chapter  on,  187-238 ;  physical  features  of,  187 ; 
population,  190;  races,  191;  religions,  192;  slavery  in,  193, 
213;  rum,  193;  discovery  and  exploration  of,  194-9;  partition 
of,  199;  steamers,  railroads,  etc.  in,  200;  early  Christianity  in, 
202 ;  summary  of  results,  236. 

AFRICA,  East  Central,  226;  Church  Missionary  Society  in,  227, 
229 ;  United  Methodist  Free  Churches,  227 ;  Universities'  Mis- 
sion, 228 ;  Scottish  Established  Church  and  Free  Church,  230 ; 
Berlin,  London  and  Paris  Societies,  and  Moravians,  231. 

AFRICA,  North,  232;  first  missions  in,  233;  United  Presbyterian 
Church,  234;  North  Africa  Society,  235. 

AFRICA,  South,  204;  first  mission  to,  205;  London  Society,  207; 
English  Wesleyans,  208 ;  Paris  Society,  209 ;  German  societies, 
210;  American  Board,  210;  Scottish  missions,  211;  summary 
of  results,  213. 

AFRICA,  West,  213;  mission  to,  proposed,  99;  Moravians  in,  214: 
Church  Missionary  Society,  214;  Wesleyan,  216;  America!. 
Baptist  and  Presbyterian,  217;  Basle  Society  and  American 
Methodist,  218;  United  Brethren,  Episcopalian  and  United 
Presbyterian  of  Scotland,  219;  North  German,  and  American 
Lutheran  (General  Synod),  220;  Southern  Baptist  Convention, 
221. 

AFRICA,  West  Central,  222;  English  and  American  Baptists  in, 
224-5  ;  Swedish  Societies,  225  ;  Congo  Balolo  Mission  and  Ar 
not's,  225. 

ALASKA,  Missions  in,  401. 

AMERICA,  Central,  section  on,  380-2. 

AMERICA,  Discovery  of,  effect  of  upon  missions,  32,  34. 

AMERICAN  BOARD,  Causes  which  led  to  the  founding  of,  100-107 ; 
sends  missionaries  to  India,  1 10,  to  Ceylon  and  the  Cherokee*, 

437 


438  INDEX. 

116,  390;  Sandwich  Islands  and  Palestine,  117;  South  Africa, 
210;  Sumatra,  272;  Borneo,  273;  the  Armenians,  286,  289; 
Nestorians,  287,  299 ;  European  Turkey,  302 ;  China,  320 ;  Ja- 
pan, 357 ;  Mexico,  386. 

ANGLO-SAXONS,  Conversion  of,  21;  significance  of,  34,  68;  the 
missionary  race,  130. 

ANSGAR,  Missionary  to  Scandinavia,  24. 

ARABIC  BIBLE,  Value  of,  297. 

ARMENIA,  Conversion  of,  19. 

ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC,  The,  Missions  in,  377. 

Ars  Magna,  Raymond  Lully's,  30. 

BAPTIST,  American,  Missionary  Union,  founded,  101,  112,  120; 
change  of  name,  122;  adopts  Judson  and  Rice,  122;  mission  of, 
in  Burmah,  170;  among  the  Telugus,  176;  in  West  Africa, 
217  ;  Congo  Free  State,  224. 

BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  English,  organized,  76;  enters  In- 
dia, 79,  163;  West  Africa,  214;  Congo  Basin,  224;  West  Indies, 
279. 

BAPTISTS,  Free,  organize  for  missionary  work,  125,  enter  India,  179. 

BAPTIST  SOUTHERN  CONVENTION,  organizes  for  missionary  work. 
125;  in  Brazil,  376;  Indians,  394. 

BASLE  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  organized,  96;  enters  India,  178; 
West  Africa,  218. 

BEIRUT  becomes  a  mission  station,  385,  295  ;  importance  of,  as,  297. 

BERLIN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  organized,  96 ;  enters  Burmah,  172 ; 
South  Africa,  210;  East  Africa,  231. 

BIBLE  SOCIETY,  American,  organized,  104 ;  number  of  copies  of  the 
Scriptures  printed  by,  1 37 ;  value  of  work  of  in  Spanish  Amer- 
ica, 378,  379,  380.  388. 

BIBLE  SOCIETY,  British  and  Foreign,  organized,  96;  number  of 
versions  printed  by,  137  ;  of  copies,  137. 

BOERS,  The  Dutch,  205,  207. 

BOGUE,  Dr.  David,  part  of  in  organizing  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  83-5. 

BOLIVIA,  Missions  in,  378. 

BOMBAY,  founded,  59,  151 ;  first  mission  in,  114. 

BONIFACE,  The  apostle  of  Germany,  23. 


INDEX.  439 

BOYLE,  Robert,  gift  of  for  missions,  61. 

BRAINERD,  David,  66,  67,  99,  137. 

BRAZIL,  Missions  in,  54,  375. 

BUCHANAN,  Claudius,  »  Star  in  the  East  by,"  effect  of,  103,  106, 

158,  1 68. 
BUKMAH,  Missions  in,  112,  121,  123. 

CALVIN,  sends  missionaries  to  Brazil,  54,  375. 

CANADA,  Jesuit  missions  in,  37 ;  Protestant  missions  to  the  Indians 

of,  395-4°  «• 

CANNIBALISM,  in  Figi,  258;  New  Zealand,  263;  the  New  Hebri- 
des, 266. 

CAREY,  William,  Early  career  of,  71 ;  missionary  treatise  of,  74,  76, 
81 ;  sermon  of,  75 ;  sails  for  India,  78;  impulse  given  to  mis- 
sions in  the  United  States  by,  100,  121 ;  work  in  India,  163. 

CAREY  EPOCH,  The,  in  missions,  why  properly  so  called,  70. 

CASTE,  in  India,  the  evils  of,  149. 

CEYLON,  Dutch  missions  in,  57-8;  Newell  arrives  in,  115;  rein- 
forcements sent  to,  116;  English  Church  enters,  168;  Dr.  Coke 
sails  for,  173. 

CHILI,  Missions  in,  378. 

CHINA,  Chapter  on  missions  in,  307-32;  physical  features  of,  307; 
people,  307;  languages,  308 ;  religions,  309;  Nestorian  missions 
in,  26,  309,  310;  Roman  Catholic  missions,  38,  310;  why  closed 
against  foreigners,  3 1 1 ;  Morrison  the  first  missionary  10,312; 
Milne,  315;  early  methods  01  work,  316-20;  opum  war,  321; 
later  wars,  324 ;  enlargement  of  missions,  323-337 ;  medical 
mission  in,  318,  330;  summary  of  results,  331. 

CHINA  INLAND  MISSION,  The  work  of,  328. 

CHURCH  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  Organization  of,  95  ;  enters  India, 
167;  Ceylon,  168;  West  Africa,  214;  East  Africa,  227,  229; 
North  Africa,  233 ;  New  Zealand,  263 ;  West  Indies,  278 ;  Persia, 
302 ;  Canada,  395  ;  British  Columbia,  397. 

CHURCH  AND  STATE,  Union  of,  evil  effects  of,  20,  45,  54. 

CLOUGH,  Rev.  J.  E.,  Work  of  among  the  Telugus,  176. 

CLOVIS,  Conversion  of,  22. 

COKE,  Dr.,  founds  a  mission  in  Antigua,  82,  278;  sails  for  Ceylon 
and  dies,  173. 


440  INDEX. 

COLIGNY,  Admiral,  founds  a  mission  in  Brazil,  54,  375. 

COLOMBIA,  Missions  in,  379. 

COLUMBA,  founds  a  monastery  in  lona,  22. 

COLUMBAN,  The  apostle  of  Gaul,  23. 

COOK,  Captain,  voyages  of,  effect  of  upon  missions,  49,  72,  249, 

260. 

CORNWALL,  Conn.,  Mission  school  in,  104,  117. 
CROWTHER,  Bishop  Samuel,  215. 
CRUSADES,  Value  of  as  a  missionary  agency,  28. 
CYRIL  AND  METHODIUS,  apostles  of  the  Slavs,  24. 

DANISH  MISSIONS,  47,  58;  at  Tranquebar,  63,  156,  179;  in  Green- 
land, 64. 

DARWIN,  Charles,  testimony  of  to  missions,  259,  375. 
DEMOCRACY,  Value  of  to  missions,  46. 
DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA,  Effect  of,  upon  missions,  32,  34. 
Duff,  The,  sails  for  the  South  Seas,  88 ;  captured  by  the  French, 

94- 

DUFF,  Alexander,  73. 

DUFFERIN,  The  Countess  of,  organization  of  medical  work  by,  181. 

DUNCAN,  William,  Work  of  at  Metlakahtla,  138,  397-401. 

DUTCH,  Missions  of,  in  the  East  Indies,  56-8,  274,  275 ;  West  In- 
dies, 58. 

DYAKS,  Head-taking,  of  Borneo,  273. 

EAST  INDIA  Co.,  Charter  of  given,  59 ;  opposition  of  to  missions, 

112-115,  J34»  1S%>  dissolved,  161. 
EAST  INDIES,  Missions  in,  270-5. 
ECUADOR,  Missions  in,  380. 
EDINBURGH  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY  organized,  86;  sends  two  men 

to  the  Foulahs,  89. 

EpUCATION  AND  MISSIONS,  138. 

EDWARDS,  Jonathan,  pamphlet  of  on  missions,  73;    missionary 

work,  and  life  of  Brainerd,  99. 
EGEDE,  Hans,  missionary  to  Greenland,  64. 
EGYPT,  Modern  missions  in,  234. 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY,  The,  missions  of ;  Danish-Halle,  63;  to 

American  Indians,  63;  Moravian,  65. 


INDEX. 


441 


ELIOT,  John,  first  missionary  to  the  Indians,  6l,  99. 

ENGLAND,  Conversion  of,  21. 

ERASMUS,  Missionary  treatise  of,  53. 

EUROPE,  Missionary  beginnings  in,  15;  Western,  15,  21 ;  Central, 

23;  Northern,  24;  Eastern,  24. 
EXPANSION,  Missionary,  the  phenomenon  of,  chapter  on,  126-41 ; 

described,  127-8;  causes  which  co-operated  to  produce,  130. 

FIJI,  Evangelization  of,  257. 

FISK  and  Parsons,  the  first  missionaries  to  Palestine,  118,  285. 

FRANCKE,  Connection  of  with  missions  in  the  Eighteenth  century, 

63- 
FREE  CHURCH,  of  Scotland,  enters  India,  173;  South  Africa,  211 ; 

East  Africa,  230 ;  Jewish  mission  in  Turkey,  288. 
FREDERICK  IV.  OF  DENMARK,  Mission  founded  by,  in  Tranquebar, 

63 ;  in  Greenland,  64. 
FRIENDLY  ISLANDS,  Evangelization  of,  256. 
FRUMENTIUS,  Apostle  of  Abyssinia,  19. 
FULLER,  Andrew,  visits  Carey,  73;  counsels  American  Baptists, 

122. 

GARDINER,  Capt.  Allen,  career  of,  372,  et  seq. 
GEDDIE,  Rev.  John,  missionary  in  the  New  Hebrides,  267. 
GENESIS  OF  MISSIONS  IN  AMERICA,  Chapter  on,  97-125. 
GLASGOW  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  organized,  86 ;  sends  two  men  to 

the  Foulahs,  89. 

GOODELL,  Rev.  Wm.,  opens  a  mission  in  Constantinople,  286,  289. 
GORDON,  Rev.  G.  N.,  killed  in  the  New  Hebrides,  269. 
GORDON,  Rev.  J.  S.,  killed  in  the  New  Hebrides,  269. 
GOSSNER'S  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  Work  of  among  the  Koli,  169, 

178. 

GOTHS,  The  Conversion  of,  19. 
GUTZLAFF,  Work  of  in  China,  317,  318,  319. 

HALDANE,  Robert,  Mission  to  Bengal  planned  by,  86. 

HALL,  Gordon,  Evangelizing  zeal  of,  106;  sails  for  India,  no; 

reaches  Bombay,  114. 
HAMLIN,  Rev.  Cyrus,  enters  the  Turkish  Mission,  289;  founds 

Robert  College,  294. 


442  INDEX. 

HASSELTINE,  Ann  (Mrs.  Judson),  Heroism  of,  171. 
HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS,  Evangelization  of,  117,  260. 
HAWEIS,  Dr.,  Zeal  of  for  missions,  84,  91,  102. 
HERVEY  ISLANDS,  Evangelization  of,  253. 
HOPKINS,  Rev.  Samuel,  proposes  a  mission  to  Africa,  99 
HORNE,  Melville,  Letters  on  missions  by,  103. 

INDIA,  Physical  features  of,  143 ;  population,  144 ;  religious  prac- 
tices, 147;  caste,  149;  history,  150;  British  rule,  152-4,  180, 
185;  public  works,  154;  native  states,  154;  beginnings  of  the 
Gospel,  19;  advent  of  Carey,  157,  163;  effect  of  the  Mutiny, 
160-1 ;  missions  of  the  Church  Society,  167  ;  American  Board, 
no,  169;  American  Baptists,  170,  176;  Wesleyans,  173;  Church 
of  Scotland,  173;  Presbyterians,  175;  woman's  work,  180;  med- 
ical missions,  180;  summary  of  results,  163,  182. 

INDIANS,  American,  Chapter  on,  389-402;  early  missions  to,  Eliot 
and  the  Mayhews,  61 ;  Edwards  and  Brainerd,  67;  Zeisberger, 
67,  82 ;  the  American  Board,  1 16. 

INDUSTRIAL  MISSIONS,  Value  of,  138. 

INGLIS,  Rev.  John,  missionary  in  the  New  Hebrides,  267. 

IRELAND,  Conversion  of,  22. 

ISLANDS  OF  THE  SEA,  Chapter  on,  247-280. 

JAPAN,  Chapter  on,  239-264;  physical  features  of,  339;  people, 
340;  religions,  341 ;  history,  342;  Roman  Catholic  missions  in, 
343 ;  closed  against  foreigners,  346 ;  Commodore  Perry's  expe- 
dition to,  347 ;  first  Protestant  missionaries  in,  350 ;  political 
revolution,  351;  open  to  the  Gospel,  356;  summary  of  results, 
36i. 

JAVA,  Mission  work  in,  271. 

JESUIT  MISSIONS,  in  Canada,  37 ;  in  India,  38 ;  in  Paraguay,  368. 

JEWETT,  Dr.,  missionary  to  the  Telugus,  176. 

JUDSON,  Adoniram,  at  Andover,  106;  sent  to  London,  108;  sails 
for  India,  no;  is  immersed,  112;  enters  Burmah,  123,  170. 

KATHIAWAR,  first  of  native  states  to  be  entered  by  missionaries, 

.60. 
KIERNANDER,  missionary  in  Calcutta,  82,  157,  158. 


INDEX. 


443 


KING,  Rev.  Jonas,  a  missionary  in  Greece,  288. 

KOREA,  the  country  and  people,  231-3 ;  Roman  Catholic  missions 

in,  333 ;  Protestant  missions,  335. 
KRAPF,  John  Ludwig,  missionary  in  East  Africa,  197,  198,  222, 

227,  228. 

LEIPSIC  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  in  India,  179. 

LIVINGSTONE,  David,  196,  208,  228,  230. 

LONDON  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  The  organization  of,  83-5  ;  opens 

missions  in  the  South  Seas,  87  ;  in  South  Africa,  92,  207 ;  India, 

167  ;  East  Africa,  231 ;  Madagascar,  241. 

LOVEDALE,  138,  211. 

LUTHERAN  MISSIONS,  Early,  in  Tranquebar,  63;  in  Greenland, 

64- 

LUTHERAN  CHURCH  (General  Synod),  Missions  of,  in  India,  125, 
179;  West  Africa,  220. 

LUTKENS,  Chaplain  to  Frederick  IV.,  connection  of  with  Tranque- 
bar Mission. 

MADAGASCAR,  Physical  features  of,  238;  population,  239;  begin- 
ning of  missions  in,  241;  persecution,  243;  great  ingathering, 

*45- 

MADRAS,  Missions  in,  168,  169,  170,  173,  186. 
MALABAR  COAST,  St  Thomas  Christians  of,  19,  156. 
MANCHURIA,  Missions  in,  328. 

MARSDEN,  Rev.  Samuel,  Work  of  for  New  Zealand,  263,  265. 
MARTYN,  Henry,  158,  168. 
MASS  CONVERSIONS,  140,  167,  177,  178. 
MAYHEWS,  The,  missionaries  to  the  Indians,  61,  99. 
MEDICAL  MISSIONS,  The  value  of,  138,   180;   in  China,  330; 

Korea,  336. 
METHODIST  CHURCH,  The  missions  of,  origin  of,  123;  in  Africa, 

124;  in   India,   177;  in  Bulgaria,  302;  South  America,  376; 

Mexico,  387;  American  Indians,  124,  393. 
METHODIST  CHURCH,  South,   Missionary  organization  of,  125; 

work  of  among  the  Indians,  394 ;  Mexico,  387. 
METLAKAHTLA,  Mission  of  Wm.  Duncan  at,  138,  397. 
MEXICO,  Section  on,  382-8. 


444  INDEX. 

MICRONESIA,  Evangelization  of,  began,  262. 

MILLS,  Samuel  J.,  104;  befriends  Obookiah,  117. 

MILNE,  Dr.,  arrives  in  China,  315 ;  to  Malacca,  316. 

MISSIONS,  Christian  idea  of,  5 ;  Christ's  teaching  concerning,  loj 

Holy  Ghost  and,  14. 

MISSIONS  IN  AMERICA,  Genesis  of,  chapter  on,  97-125. 
MISSIONARY  EXPANSION,  The  phenomenon  of,  chapter  on,  126- 

141. 

MISSIONS,  Home,  in  the  United  States,  magnitude  of,  98. 
MISSIONS,  Medieval,  Methods  employed  in,  23-5. 
MISSIONS,  Protestant,  The  beginning  of,  why  so  long  delayed,  40 ; 

zeal  was  anti-Catholic,  43 ;  Church  and  State  were  united,  45 ; 

the  people  had  no  power,  46 ;  no  contact  with  the  heathen  world, 

47- 
MISSIONS,  Roman  Catholic,  Origin  of,  36 ;  features  of,  37 ;  Xavier, 

37;  Jesuits  in  Canada  and  India,  38,  163;  China,  310;  Korea, 

334;  Japan,  343;  failure  of,  38;  in  Japan,  343. 
MOFFAT,  Robert,  196,  207. 
MOHAMMEDANISM,  The  rise  of,   26 ;   spread,  26,  27 ;  crusades 

against,  28;    Lully's  mission  to,  29;    restrained  by  Christian 

powers,  135,  410,  et  seq. 
MONGOLIA,  Missions  in,  328. 
MORAVIAN  MISSIONS,  65 ;  in  South  Africa,  205 ;  West  Africa, 

214;  East  Africa,  231;  West  Indies,  276;  Dutch  Guiana,  370; 

among  the  Indians,  389. 
MORRISON,  Rev.  Robert,  first  missionary  to  China,  312;  translates 

the  Bible,  314;  patient  waiting  of,  320. 
MUTINY,  The  Indian,  Effect  of  on  missions,  160,  161. 

NEESIMA,  Joseph,  352,  359. 

NEPEAN,  Gov.  Evan,  orders  Hall  and  Nott  to  depart  from  Bom- 
bay, 114;  allows  them  to  remain,  115. 

NESTORIANS,  Early  missionary  activity  of,  25,  28,  310;  mission  to, 
287,  299. 

NETHERLANDS  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  organized,  90 ;  in  the  East 
Indies,  274. 

.NEWELL,  Rev.  Samuel,  in  Andover,  106;  sails  for  India,  no;  to 
Ceylon.  115  ;  to  Bombay,  115. 


INDEX.  445 

NEWELL,  Mrs.  Harriet,  dies,  114;  worth  of  brief  career  of,  115, 

137- 

NEW  GUINEA,  Introduction  of  the  Gospel  into,  270. 
NEW  HEBRIDES,  Evangelization  of,  266-70. 
NEW  ZEALAND,  Work  of  the  Gospel  in,  263-6. 
NOBILI,  Robert  de,  Imposture  of,  38. 
NORTH  AFRICA  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  The  work  of,  235. 
NORTH  GERMAN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  Mission  of  in  West  Africa, 

220. 
NOTT,  Rev.  Samuel,  in  Andover,  106;  sails  for  India,  no;  early 

experiences  in  Bombay,  114. 

OBOOKIAH,  117,  260. 

OBLIGATION,  Missionary,  rests  on  all  alike,  6,  9 ;  as  Moravian* 
hold,  7;  as  Carey  felt,  8;  and  the  early  church,  IO,  12,  16. 

PALESTINE,  Mission  of  the  American  Board  to,  117,  285,  287 ;  of 
other  societies,  298. 

PARAGUAY,  Jesuit  missions  in,  368. 

PARIS  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  organized,  96 ;  enters  South  Africa, 
209;  the  Zambezi  valley,  231. 

PARK,  Mungo,  Exploration  of  the  Niger  by,  195. 

PARKER,  Dr.  Peter,  the  founder  of  medical  missions  in  China,  319. 

PARSONS  AND  FISK,  the  first  missionaries  to  Palestine,  118,  285. 

PATTESON,  Bishop,  killed  in  the  Santa  Cruz  Islands,  269. 

PATRICK,  St.,  Missionary  zeal  of,  22. 

PERKINS,  Rev.  Justin,  carries  the  Gospel  to  the  Nestorians,  300 ; 
translates  the  Bible  into  Syriac,  301. 

PERSIA,  Mission  to,  founded  by  the  American  Board,  300 ;  English 
Church  Missionary  enters,  301. 

PERU,  Missions  in,  379. 

PLASSEY,  Battle  of,  effect  of  upon  missions,  48,  67,  153. 

PLUTSCHO,  missionary  to  Tranquebar,  63. 

PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  The,  joins  in  the  work  of  the  American 
Board,  119;  withdraws  for  separate  work,  119;  enters  India, 
175 »  West  Africa,  217;  Syria,  298;  Persia,  301;  Brazil,  376; 
Central  America,  382;  Mexico,  386;  among  the  Indians,  394. 

PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  South,  Missions  of,  in  Brazil,  376;  Mex- 
ico, 386. 


446  INDEX. 

PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  CANADA,  Missions  of,  in  the  New 

Hebrides,  269 ;  West  Indies,  279. 
PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH,   Reformed,  American,   Mission  of  in 

Syria,  299. 

PROTESTANT  MISSIONS,  Chapter  on,  40-52. 
PROPAGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL,  Society  for,  charter  of,  66 ;  enters 

India,   168;  Burmah,    172;  South  Africa,  212;    Borneo,  274; 

West  Indies,  278;  Korea,  337. 
PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  organized  for  missions,  125  ;  in 

Greece,  125;  China,  125;  West  Africa,  219;  Indians,  394. 

QUEBEC,  Capture  of,  effect  of  on  missions,  48,  67. 

RANKIN,  Miss  Melinda,  Work  of  in  Mexico,  385. 

REFORMATION,  The,  effect  of  upon  missions,  32-4. 

REFORMED  (DUTCH)  CHURCH,  co-operates  with  the  American 

Board,  120;  mission  in  India,  179. 

REFORMERS,  The,  why  lacking  in  missionary  zeal,  41-52. 
REVIVALS,  Stimulus  from  to  missions,  49,  68,  141. 
RHENISH  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  Missions  of,  in  South  Africa,  210 ; 

East  Indies,  271,  272,  275. 
RICE,  Rev.  Luther,  109;  sails  for  India,  no;  is  immersed,  112, 

1 20;  returns,  122. 

ROMAN  EMPIRE,  Conversion  of,  15 ;  forces  which  aided  in,  16. 
RUSSIA,  Conversion  of,  24. 

SAMOA,  Evangelization  of,  255. 

SANDWICH  ISLANDS,  Evangelization  of,  1 17,  260. 

SAXONS,  The,  Conversion  of,  23. 

SCANDINAVIA,  The  conversion  of,  24. 

SCHWARTZ,  Christian  Frederick,  64,  82,  156,  158. 

SCOTLAND,  The  conversion  of,  22. 

SCOTLAND,  The  Established  Church  of,  missions  of,  in  India,  173- 

4;  East  Africa,  230. 
SCOTLAND,  Free  Church  of,  missions  of,  in  India,  173;  South  Ai 

rica,  211 ;  East  Africa,  230;  Jews  in  Turkey,  288. 
SELWYN,  Bishop,  Work  of  in  New  Zealand,  264,  269. 
SERAMPORE,  Founding  of,  59;  Carey  removes  to,  165;  the  broth 

erhood  of,  166. 


INDEX.  447 

SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY,  The  Protestant  missions  of,  54. 

SHAW,  liarnabas,  208. 

SIERRA  LEONE,  67,  195  ;  missions  in,  215,  et  seq. 

SIXTEENTH  CENTURY,  The  Protestant  missions  of,  53, 62. 

SLAVE  TRADE,  187,  192,  213,  275. 

SLAVS,  The,  Conversion  of,  24. 

SMITH,  Rev.  Eli,  Translation  of  the  Bible  into  Arabic  by,  297. 

SOCIETY  ISLANDS,  The  evangelization  of,  250;  results  flowing 
from,  253,  260. 

SOUTH  AMERICA,  Physical  features  of,  369 ;  area,  370 ;  Protestant 
missions  in,  370,  el  set/. 

SPANISH  AMERICA,  Chapter  on,  365-380;  area  and  population  of, 
365  ;  conquest  of,  366 ;  Roman  Catholic  missions  in,  367 ;  Prot- 
estant missions  in,  370,  et  seq. 

STILES,  Rev.  Ezra,  proposes  a  mission  to  Africa,  99. 

SUMATRA,  Missions  in,  272. 

SYRIAN  MISSION,  Founding  of,  285,  295 ;  results  of,  298. 

TAHITI,  Evangelization  of,  87,  91,  250. 

TAYLOR,  Rev.  J.  Hudson,  China  Inland  Mission  founded  by,  327. 

TELUGU  MISSION,  Baptist,  121,  176. 

THOMAS,  Dr.  John,  meets  Carey,  77;  sails  for  India,  79;  later 

career  of,  157,  163,  165. 

TRANQUEBAR,  Founding  of,  59;  the  mission  in,  63,  156,  179. 
TURKISH  EMPIRE,  The,  Chapter  on,  281-306. 

ULPHILAS,  apostle  of  the  Goths,  19. 

UNITED  BRETHREN,  Mission  of  in  West  Africa,  219. 

UNITED  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  American,  Missions  of,  in  India, 

179;  in  Egypt,  234. 
UNITED  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  Scottish,  Missions  of,  in  India, 

179;  South  Africa,  212;  West  Africa,  219;  West  Indies,  279. 
UNIVERSITIES'  MISSION  TO  CENTRAL  AFRICA,  228. 

VANDERKEMP,  90 ;  sails  for  Africa,  92  •  missionary  real  of,  94, 

207,  241. 

VAN  DYCK,  Dr.,  Translation  of  the  Bible  into  Arabic  by,  397. 
VENEZUELA,  Missions  in,  379. 
VLADIMIR,  King,  The  conversion  of,  24. 


448  INDEX. 

WARNECK,  Dr.,  Estimate  of  Zinzendorf  by,  66;  on  mass  conver 
sions,  140. 

WELZ,  Von,  Missionary  zeal  of,  62. 

WESLEYAN  REVIVAL,  The,  Effect  of  on  missions,  49-50,  68. 

WESLEYAN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  Organization  of,  96 ;  enters  In- 
dia, 172;  Burmah,  172;  South  Africa,  208,  213;  West  Africa, 
216;  Friendly  Islands,  256;  Fiji,  257;  New  Zealand,  265; 
West  Indies,  277. 

WEST  INDIES,  Missions  in,  275-80. 

WHITMAN,  Dr.  Marcus,  Career  of  as  missionary  in  Oregon,  392. 

WILLIAMS,  John,  Work  of,  in  the  Society  Islands,  253 ;  Hervey 
Group,  254 ;  Samoa,  255 ;  New  Hebrides,  266. 

WILLIAMS,  S.  Wells,  missionary  in  China,  320,  325. 

WILSON,  Captain,  sails  in  the  Duff,  88;  returns,  91. 

WOMAN'S  PART  IN  MISSIONS,  Early  ideas  of,  1 1 1 ;  importance  of, 
138;  work  in  India,  180-2. 

XAVIER,  St.  Francis,  37 ;  in  Japan,  343. 

ZENANA  WORK,  180. 

ZEISBERGER,  David,  Work  of,  among  the  Indians,  67,  82,  389, 

ZIEGENBALG,  Founding  of  Tranquebar  mission  by,  63. 


By  ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D. 


The  Miracles  of  Missions 

FIRST   SERIES 

Intensely  Interesting  marvels  and  tales  of 
heroism  upon  the  world-wide  mission  field 

CONTENTS  : 

The  Iposllu  of  the  Sooth  Seal  The  Syrian  Martyr 

Among  the  lyndi  of  Glatgow  The  Und  of  th  White  Elephant 

The  Wild  Men  of  Bormah  Minion  to  the  Blind  of  China 

The  land  of  Queen  Either  The  Home  of  the  Inquititioa 

The  light  of  the  tape  of  Good  Hope     Wonderful  Story  of  Madagascar 
The  Convert!  and  Martyn  of  Uganda 

"It  is  a  record  of  marvelous  achievement*,  and  in  a 
world  of  heroism  by  the  side  of  which  the  Napoleonic 
valor  palea."— Cfcri*tian  Leader,  Boston. 

"  In  reading  it  one  ia  intensely  Interested  and  perfectly 
amazed."— Christian  JTation,  New  York. 

"This  book  tells  some  of  the  signs— the  miracles— 
•wrought  by  the  Almighty,  testifying  Ilia  presence  in  the 
labors  of  consecrated  men  and  women  of  the  Mission 
field*."— Herald  of  Gospel  Liberty. 

"  It  has  the  merit  of  pnngency  and  brevity.  ...  Of 
much  interest  and  usefulness."— The  Independent, 
New  York. 

"It  sums  np  conveniently  and  even  fascinatingly  the 
achievements  of  modern  missions  in  their  most  telling 
aspects.  It  is  a  book  for  the  preacher's  study,  for  local 
missionary  bands,  and  Is  a  ready  argument  to  pat  into 
the  hands  of  skeptics."— Th*  IntttUti  Guide, 
Louisville. 

"It  shows  clearly  God's  miracles,  working  power  In 
conversions  in  all  lands.  The  book  is  a  glorious  wilnem 
to  the  divine  power  of  Christianity."— Oo«pe<  in  All 
Land*,  New  York. 

Illuxtratrd,  12mo,  Cloth,  gilt-top, 
$1.OO  f  Faptr,  35  cent*,  pout-free. 


i   FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY,  Publishers, 
44-60  East  23d  Street.  New  York. 


By  ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D. 


The  Miracles  of  Missions 

SECOltD    SERIES 

Christianity  proved  by  records  of  marvelous 

achievements. 

CONTENTS  : 

Modern  Marvels  in  Formosa  The  Cannibals  of  Fiji 

The  Bishop  of  the  Niger  Hoffat  and  Africaner 

The  Story  of  Tahiti  Livingstone's  Body  Guard 

Midnight  and  Day-Dawn  at  Hawaii     The  McAll  Mission  in  France 
The  Pentecost  in  Bilo  The  Pentecost  of  Banza  Manteke 

Moral  Revolution  at  Sierra  Leone        The  Story  of  New  Zealand 
Wonders  Wrought  in  tt»  West  Indies 

"  The  book  tells  not  of  things  hoped  for  but  of  things 
accomplished.  .  .  .  Some  of  the  stories  read  like  tales 
of  enchantment,  and  can  not  fail  to  kindle  enthusiasm 
anew." — Christian  Iieader,  Boston. 

"It  is  an  instructive  and  impressive  volume." — The 
Watchman,  Boston. 

"  Every  lover  of  mission  work  will  find  it  invaluable." 
—Christian  Work,  New  York. 

"  It  Is  a  cheerful  recital  of  gospel  conquests,  in  fields 
that  to  human  eyes  were  unpromising." — Michigan 
Christian  Advocate. 

"Dr.  A.  T.  Pierson,  in  hie  'Miracles  of  Missions,1 
boldly  asserts  direct  providential  manifestations  In  these 
days,  finding  in  the  history  of  modern  missions  many 
i    wonderful  occurrences  equal  to  those  of  the  apostolic 
age."— The  World,  New  York. 

"  This  book  takes  us  away  from  the  centers  of  civili- 
zation, of  materialism,  of  skepticism,  of  theoretical  be- 
lief— but  actual  unbelief— to  the  heathen  world,  to  godly    <l 
men  and  women  sacrificing  all  for  the  service  of  Christ."    < 
>  —Christian  Standard,  Philadelphia. 

Illustrated,  12mo,  Cloth,  gilt-top,  , 

$1.OO  i  Paper,  33  cents  ;  post-free.  \ 

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By  ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D. 

"  CbntUtvtet  a  new  book  of  the  Actt  of  the  ApotUa,  and  will 
be  read  icitfi  thrilling  tnterett."— Niw  TOBK  OBSEBVKP. 

The  Miracles 
of  Missions 

THIRD    SERIES 

Stories  of  interesting  marvels  resulting  from 
mission  work  and  missionary  heroism  on  the 
world's  mission  fields.  Those  who  are  inter- 
ested in  the  subject  of  missions,  or  in  the 
spread  of  Christianity,  can  not  fail  to  derive 
help  and  pleasure  from  these  new  records  of 
surprising  mission  accomplishments  in  all 
lands.  The  book  is  a  companion  volume  to 
the  First  and  Second  Series. 

Unity,  Chicago:  "It  la  a  genuine  addition  to  the  so- 
ciological library.1' 

The  Chautauguan,  Cleveland :  "  A  recital  of  many 
remarkable  and  thrilling  experiences  of  the  mission 
fields." 

Union  Signal,  Chicago :  "The  book  will  be  a  wel- 
come addition  to  the  two  preceding  volumes  of  this 
series." 

The  Witness,  New  York:  "The  reader  will  not  go 
to  sleep  over  this  book." 

I2«o,  Cloth.    Price,  $1.00;  Paper,  35  Cents 

Firit  and  Second  Series.    Itmo,   Cloth,  $1.00  Each; 
Paper,  t5  Cent*  Each 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY.  Pub'n 

44-60  East  23d  Street.  New  York. 


By  ARHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D. 


"  They  are  told  in  a  thrilling  and  impressive  style,  read 
almost  like  chapters  from  the  New  Testament."— THB 
MORNINO  STAB,  Boston. 

The  Miracles 
of  Missions 

FOURTH     SERIES 

"  As  In  the  preceding  volumes  of  the  same  title,  Dr. 
Pierson  has  gathered  here  from  scattered  departments  of 
missionary  and  evangelistic  work,  illustrations  of  the 
evident  working  of  God  through  human  instruments. 
Such  stories  as  that  of  "Khama  the  Good,"  "The  Trans- 
formation of  Tinnevelly,"  and  "William  Ducan  and  his 
Metlakatla,"  fill  one  with  the  conviction  of  operations 
of  God  hi  missions  to-day  as  plain  as  anything  hi  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles.  Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the 
previous  volumes  of  this  series  will  need  no  other  recom- 
mendation than  the  assurance  that  the  present  volume  is 
up  to  their  level  hi  interest.  Such  volumes  are  delightful 
means  of  making  acquaintance  with  the  mission  work  of 
Christianity."— The  Living  Church,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

"It  is  generally  conceded  that  there  is  nonliving  writer 
on  Christian  missions  the  equal  of  Rev.  Dr.  Arthur  T. 
Pierson  hi  fulness  of  knowledge,  hi  enthusiasm  and  ear- 
nestness of  spirit  and  in  charm  and  power  of  treatment. 
...  In  this  volume,  as  in  others  of  the  series,  Dr.  Pier- 
son  has  marshaled  a  convincing  array  of  facts,  of  positive 
and  indisputable  evidence,  in  proof  of  the  divine  work- 
ing in  mission  history,  of  the  answered  prayers  of  faith- 
ful and  believing  souls." — Christian  Work,  N.  Y. 

I2mo.    Price,  Cloth,  $1.00;  Paper,  35  cents 

first,  Second,  and  Third  Series.  Vtmo,  Cloth,  $1.00  Each; 
Paper,  85  Centt  Each, 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY.  Pub'n 
Q          44-60  East  23d  Street,  New  York. 


By  ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D. 


Catharine  of  Siena 

The  Life  Story  of  a  Wonderful  Woman. 

The  life  of  Catharine  of  Siena  is  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  and  fascinating  biographies  in  medieval 
history.  In  the  midst  of  ecclesiastical  corruption 
this  "  daughter  of  the  people  "  rose  to  be  a  tower  of 
strength  for  purifying  the  church  and  ministering  to 
the  people.  With  a  faith  which  swept  all  before  it, 
her  influence  swayed  cardinals,  princes,  and  popes, 
and  she  acted  as  mediator  between  Church  and 
State.  The  interesting  story  of  her  life  is  told  In 
this  volume. 

Southern  Star,  Atlanta,  Oa.:  "There  Is  an  especial 
fltneiw  In  bringing  to  the  front  such  a  woman  preacher  In 
the  day  when  godly  women  are  fast  coining  Into  real  promi- 
nence as  worker*  In  the  mlftalon  field  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  when  the  sisterhood  of  the  race  seems  to  be  for  the 
first  time  mounting  to  the  true  throne  of  woman's  Influence 
and  kingdom." 

Fp  worth  Herald,  Chicago:  "Her  story  onght,  If 
widely  read,  to  arouse  In  the  women  of  to-day  a  desire  to 
emulate  the  virtues  of  their  Illustrious  sister  of  the  past." 

The  Living  Church,  Chicago:  "How  few  In  onrday, 
even  among  our  hlirh  school  and  college  graduates,  know 
anything  about  this  devoted  woman." 

Chrlfttlan  Herald,  Detroit,  Mich.:  "  The  story  Is  well 
told  by  Dr.  Flerson,  whose  own  piety  Is  of  the  tamo  mys- 
tical but  evangelical  type." 

The  HoMion  Tlntem  "Thn  modern  woman  striving 
for  nobler  things  will  be  helped  by  this  sketch." 


> 


PlttMbnrtr  Chrlntlan   Advocate:   "  It* 
brimful  of  Inspiration,  while  at  the  tame  time  they  narrate 
a  history  most  thrilling  and  ennobling."  < 

I2mo,  Cloth,  Cover  Design. 
Price,   SO  cents,  post-paid. 

-  < 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY,  Publishers,  < 

44-60  Easi  23d  Street.  New  York.  \ 

A  A  «i  *  »  ^  A  A 


By  ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D. 


"Tit  €bri$t  1c$u$" 

Or  the  Sphere  of  the  Believer's  Life 

This  practical  little  book  seeks  to  demonstrate 
the  boundless  range  and  scope  and  the  numer- 
ous applications  of  the  phrase  which  forms 
its  title.  The  particular  application  of  this 
phrase  is  considered  separately  as  it  occurs 
in  Paul's  epistles.  There  are  eight  illustra- 
tive charts. 

The  Presbyterian,  New  York :  "  This  Is  a  very  spir- 
itual and  devotional  book,  abounding  In  stimulating  and 
refreshing  Instruction." 

Herald  and  Presbyter,  Cincinnati:  "The  book  Is 
written  In  a  devout  and  helpful  spirit,  and  can  not  fall  to 
encourage  and  benefit  all  classes  of  Christians." 

The  Boston  Journal:  "Through  the  Epistles  of 
Paul  the  phrase  Is  traced,  and  the  significance  of  Its  occur- 
rence Is  commented  upon,  and  the  conclusion  that  the  be- 
liever finds  In  Christ  a  new  sphere  of  life  Is  elaborated  In  a 
manner  which  may  prove  of  Interest." 

The  Boston  Times:  "The  little  book  by  Rev.  Arthur 
T  Plerson  Is  full  of  Inspiration  for  Christian  workers.  The 
meaning  of  the  phrase  '  In  Christ  Jesus '  Is  clearly  expressed 
by  a  diagram  snowing  a  circle  within  which  the  faithful 
find  the  Savior,  and  out  of  which  evil  spirits,  sin,  and  wick- 
edness press.  The  author  shows  with  clearness  and  power 
the  true  significance  of  association  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  It 
Is  a  thoughtful  gift-book  for  the  devout." 

The  ContrreKationalist,  Boston:  "  It  Is  a  help  to  the 
devotional  life  and  something  more.  It  emphasizes  justlfl 
cation,  sanctlflcatlon,  fellowship  with  God,  exaltation,  com- 
pensation for  suffering.  Identification  with  Christ,  and  the 
final  glorification  of  the  believer." 

Cumberland  Presbyterian,  Nashville, Tenn.:  "For 
preachers  and  Sunday-school  teachers  It  Is  especially  sug- 
gestive."   

I2mo,  Cloth,  Cover  Design. 
Price,   60   cents,  post-paid. 


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I  "'The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World'  is  the  only 
>  Complete  current  Review  of  Missionary  operations  and 
t  Missionary  problems  in  connection  with  all  Protestant 
)  Agencies  all  the  world  over."— The  Rock,  London. 

> 


THE. 

Missionary  Review 

OF  THE  WORLD 

An  illustrated  monthly  magazine  furnishing 
a  bright  and  authentic  record  of  the  progress, 
stirring  events,  and  statistics  of  the  world- 
wide mission  field.  It  is  limited  by  no  de- 
nominational or  national  lines ;  its  various 
departments  are  edited  by  specialists,  com- 
prehending every  feature  of  home  and  for- 
eign missions.  Little  in  romance  exceeds 
the  intensely  interesting  and  often  thrilling 
stories  of  the  mission  field. 

REVIEW    DEPARTMENTS 

Literature  of  Missions     International  Dep't 
Field  of  Monthly  Survey    Editorial  Department 
General  Missionary  Intelligence 

SPECIAL  STAFF  CORRESPONDENTS 

in  Turkey,  Burma,  Korea,  Madagascar,  Persia, 
Egypt,  China,  New  Hebrides,  England,  Canada, 
Mexico,  Argentina,  Spain,  India,  Morocco,  Af-   \ 
rica,  Japan,  Syria,  Italy,  Australia,  Germany,    \ 
Prance,  Brazil,  and  many  other  countries.  < 


" 'The  Missionary  Review  of  the  World '  sweeps  its  vision  ^ 
over  the  entire  world,  and  it  not  only  sees,  but  knows  how  4 
to  tell  what  it  sees."— Tbe  Imer'tc**  MiMiowiry,  N.  Y.  < 


(Continued  on  the  following  page) 
»^^---~~~  — ~ ^ 


THE 


MISSIONARY  REVIEW 


A  Monthly  Magazine  of  Missionary  Intelligence  and 
the  Discussion  of  Missionary  Problems,  Covering 
every  Mission  of  every  Society  of  every  Country  in 
ail  Parts  of  the  World. 


EDITOR-IN-CHIEF : 

ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON,  D.D. 

Associate  Editors :  J.  T.  GBACKY,  D.D.,  President  of  the 
"International  Missionary  Union,"  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.;  D.  L.  LEONARD,  D.D.  Man- 
aging Editor:  D.  L.  PIERSON. 


CONTENTS  i 

1.  LITERATURE  op  MISSIONS.    Editorial  and  contrib- 

uted articles  by  the  best  writers  on  Mission  topics. 

2.  INTERNATIONAL  DEPARTMENT.    Conducted  by  J. 

T.  Gracey,  D.D.,  President  of  the  International 
Missionary  Union. 

3.  FIELD  OP  MONTHLY  SURVEY.— D.  L.  Pierson. 

4.  EDITORIAL  DEPARTMENT.— Editor-in-Chief. 

5.  GENERAL  MISSIONARY  INTELLIGENCE,  Edited  by 

Rev.  D.  L.  Leonard. 


Each  number  contains  80  large  8vo  pages.  (At  end  of 
each  year  Is  the  bound  volume  of  nearly  1,000  pages.) 

Subscription :  $2.50  per  year. 

SO  cents  additional  (2s.),  postage  must  accompany 
every  subscription  for  "  The  Missionary  Review  of  the 
World  "  If  ordered  to  go  by  European  malls. 

•2.00  In  clubs  of  ten  or  more. 

Specimen  copy,  25  cents. 

Bound  volume,  $3.00. 

January,  1895,  began  the  eighth  year. 


The  Rock,  London.  England:  '"The  Mission- 
ary Review  of  the  World '  is  the  only  complete  Cur- 
rent Review  of  Missionary  Operations  and  Missionary 
Problems  in  connection  with  all  Protestant  agencies  all 
the  world  over."  

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY,  Publishers 
44-60  East  23d  Street,  New  York. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-Series  4939 


000990136  4 


BV 

2060 
L55?h 
1905 


